Dear Student Number 43 2
by LoveMeHugMeKissMeMissMe
Summary: The title should say it all. Dumbledore has yet another plan for interhouse unity. How will this effect the inner minds of the student body? And after an accident, will Hermione's pen pal change and will Harry break up a love?
1. Hellos

Hello everyone. This is E NiNa 3, not PMS4EVA (a.k.a. whatever other names she used to or still goes by that I don't remember), one of my best best friends in the ENTIRE world who is sitting next to me watching MTVhits and letting me use her account. I'm a first time fanfiction writer so please don't be too harsh. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy my stories. Yes, stories. I said that I was a new fanfiction writer, not a new writer. I'm going to start off with this one, Dear Student #43-7 and try to work a bit of my other stories into it.

REVIEW!

3 Always

E NiNa 3


	2. Cookie Monster

Hey all. E NiNa 3 here. So for this story I've taken characters from the first book and will be taking from the other ones so obviously, I don't own everything here. I may make a new character who will be mine though.

P.S. That was my disclaimer

Chapter One: Cookie Monster

Welcome to another year of magic and wonder at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" Headmaster Albus Dumbledore opened as Harry, Ron and Hermione walked into the Dining Hall. They had been held back after a dispute that occurred on the train ride from Platform 9 ¾.

FLASHBACK

So Ron, how are the cookies I baked?" Hermione asked as Ron ate her double chocolate sugar cookies. She had woken up early that morning, and since she was unable to sleep she tried baking, which she had never done before without her mom or her six-year-old butt on the counter holding a wooden spoon.

The three had spent the summer at Hermione's house. Her parents had insisted that Harry stay with them and Ron too, giving the Weasley's a little time to themselves. Fred and George were moving into their own apartment and Ginny was spending the summer at a summer camp with Lavender and Parvati.

Ron forced the rock-hard bits of chocolate down his throat and winced, trying to smile. "Great Hermione. Brilliant." Hermione smiled and went back to her book, giving Ron a chance to throw the rest of the cookies into one of his bags carelessly.

"So are you guys excited for the sc-" Hermione began, but she was interrupted by a high pitch shriek, almost laugh-like. "Um, ok, what the bloody hell was that?"

"I think it came from the next car over," Harry said. He walked over towards the door as a tall figure slammed it open into his face.

"Y'know, I was wondering what the awful stench was," The blonde person said as he walked into the car. "Geez Granger, I knew you mudbloods smelled, but come on now," he waved his hand in front of his nose, "this is ridiculous"

"Oh sod off Malfoy. You're just jealous because we have these amazing cookies that weren't made by forced labor." Hermione said as she crossed her arms and stuck her nose into the air and turned around.

"Wow mudblood, not even Weasley would eat these." Pansy said. She had been snooping around and saw the cookies that were carelessly thrown into Ron's bag.

"Get out of my bag you wench!" Ron said as he grabbed it out of her hands. He turned to Harry and whispered "Great, now I have to burn my knapsack." Harry snickered softly.

"Listen Malfoy," Hermione said in a strong voice, ignoring Ron, "We were enjoying ourselves here and everything was peaceful. I do _not_ want to get into trouble before the school year even begins so would you please..." she lingered on the word 'please' as she took a step forward so that Harry and Ron could do what they had wanted to do since first year.

Malfoy stepped back as Hermione took each lingering step forward until he tripped over Ron, who was on all fours. He tried to catch himself by turning around, but hit his head on Harry's outstretched arm.

Hermione leaned over with her hands clasped behind her back as she looked into Malfoy's face with a smile on her face and said, "…make sure not hit your giant head on your way out. Bye bye."

Sorry it was so short, but this is only my first chapter. If you think that they should get detention please review. If you don't, review anyway.

E NiNa 3


	3. Welcome Home

Chapter Two: Welcome Home

Mr. and Mrs. Granger had been to a banquet the night before so Hermione told them to sleep in and that she, Harry and Ron would take a cab to the train station.

"Mmm," Ron's eyes popped open as Hermione took the cookies out of the oven in the kitchen downstairs. He jumped up from the bed in the guest room he and Harry were sharing, causing Harry to fall onto the wood floor.

"OOMPH!" Harry rubbed his butt in pain. "What the bloody hell was that for Ron?" He looked up at his redheaded friend. "We're not even supposed to be too loud. Mr. and Mrs. Granger are still asleep."

"Sorry man, but do you smell that?" Ron inhaled deeply. "Chocolate, no, sniff sniff double chocolate!"

"How can you tell the difference?" Harry asked as he pulled his favorite shirt over his head. It was a black shirt with white and blue flames on the front. In front of the flames was a large, yellow lightning bolt. The image on his shirt was the image that he asked Hermione to paint on the skateboard she had gotten him for his birthday. Something told him that learning how to skateboard would help him with his balance for quidditch during the school year. He pulled on a pair of plain, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers and messed up his hair in front of the mirror.

"It's a gift" Ron joked as he grabbed a navy shirt with a picture of a large, swirly, orange and yellow sun with squiggly rays. He put on a pair of khakis, construction boots and gelled his hair into a cowlick.

As soon as the two finished getting dressed they raced down the stairs into the kitchen to see Hermione in a tight, white tank top with a pink heart and short red boxers that were rolled up. Her hair was in a high ponytail. It looked like she had been up for hours.

Ron ran over behind her and grabbed her by the hips.

Hermione squealed as she jumped up into the air. She flipped her head around, accidentally whipping Harry in the face with her hair, filling his mouth with her auburn locks.

"Mm, Hermione, what shampoo did you use last night?" Harry asked after spitting the hair from his mouth.

"Um, Herbal Essences." Hermione blushed. "Ron! No. Those are for the train ride." Ron quickly dropped the cookie in his hand back onto the cookie sheet.

"So Hermione, what's for breakfast?" Harry asked as he plopped down into a chair.

"Nuh-uh, Harry. You gotta make breakfast this morning. I have to get dressed and finish packing." The boys were surprised, but before either could say anything their petite friend had run up the stairs and into her room.

"Cereal?" Harry asked as he walked toward the cupboard.

Hermione threw her shirt and boxers into her hamper and grabbed the clothing on her desk, waiting for today. As she pulled her hair back into a fish hairclip (A/N a long hairclip that sorta makes your hair look like it's in a pony-tail) she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

She had gone to a salon over the summer to have her hair done for her cousin's wedding and her mother had had the stylist make her hair to be more manageable. In the end of what felt like hours, she walked out with her hair transforming from a bushy mess, hey, it was early in the morning(!), to a river of auburn hair with soft, natural, chestnut highlights flowing to the middle of her back and angled away from her face. She felt almost like Mia from 'The Princess Diaries'.

Her shirt was one that she had owned for years, but never wore. It was a tight black shirt with cuts along the sides and a picture of a heart that looked like it was spray painted on in silver with small rhinestones. Instead of wearing the long red skirt she had picked out, Hermione dug into her trunk and replaced a pair of green Guacho pants that folded over on the top her mother had bought her with the skirt. She threw on a pair of black flat sandals, tossed a few stray books into her trunk, and dragged everything she was planning on bringing to school down the stairs as quietly as she could manage.

"Hermione, what are you doing?" Ron asked as he and Harry walked behind her, each carrying their trunks over their shoulders. Hermione hadn't truly realized how tall and strong her friends were. Neither of their shirts was tight against their chests, but she could tell that they were ripped.

"Bringing my trunk down the stairs while trying not to wake up my parents." Hermione explained. It was a hard task and had taken her a long enough time just to get to the second to last step.

"Here, let us." Harry said as he grabbed one end of her trunk and Ron lifted the other.

The trio walked out of the house, Hermione grabbing her knapsack containing her wand at the door, and got into the taxi they had called for (A/N This is seventh year, but it's non-HBP, I'll put in some stuff from their seventh year though to make up for it. P.S. The war hasn't happened yet).

As soon as they had arrived at the platform, Harry, Ron and Hermione rushed to find a compartment so that Hermione and Ron could change for the head and prefect meeting.

Hermione pinned her Head Girl badge to the chest of her shirt to complete her outfit and led Ron to the first compartment. Harry sat back against the window and waited for Ron, Hermione and Ginny to return.

When the meeting was over, Ginny came over to say hello to Harry, but left quickly to find Luna, and that was when the cookies came out.

Almost as soon as the trio entered the entrance hall they were met by Snape, accompanied by Pansy Parkinson.

"Ah, Misters Potter, Weasley and Miss Granger, just the three delinquents I was looking for." He said with his lip slightly curled. "Miss Parkinson was just telling me of a little incident she observed on the train ride here."

"Sir, it wasn't our fault! Malfoy just fell over!" Hermione lied instantly.

"Silence. You may go enjoy the feast. While I deal with these three." Pansy sneered at Hermione and walked off towards the Great Hall. "Now what should your punishment be? Picking on a student before the term even begins. Do you think that you are above the other students, huh, famous Harry Potter?"

"No, sir, that's not i-"

"For once, Miss Granger, keep your mouth shut."

"Hey, don't talk to her like that!"

"Be quiet Weasley. Now as I was saying, the appropriate punishment should be to take points away, bur seeing as the term has yet to begin and I am not your head of house, I will, however, give each of you-"

"A slap on the wrist until they tell you their side of what happened." Standing in the doorway was an old man wearing a long orange robe. He took a step in as he said, "Dumbledore sent me down here to send you up and take care of these three."

Snape looked angry, but walked off without saying a word.

"Ah, so we finally meet. I am Professor James Gordon, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now I don't think that punishment is necessary, it was all in self defense after all, right?" The old man said. "What actually happened?"

"Well, sir, Malfoy was picking on Hermione and her baking and Ron was tying his shoe and he just fell over, so I put out my arm to catch him but he accidentally hit his head." Harry explained with a weak smile.

"Haha, very nice, very nice. So how about one detention each with me for the story, and no hard feelings for lying considering your nice loopholes." Professor Gordon said with a smile. "Now off to the feast for all of us."

"Wow, that new teacher is so cool." Dean said as he entered the tower.

"What's up Dean?" Ron asked as he took off his robes.

"Well, Seamus and I were sneakin' over to the kitchens to nick some food so we can have a party. When we left the kitchens we were levitating the food, but he came around the corner, surprised us, and, get this, he helped us levitate it all here instead of getting us into trouble." Dean explained.

"Cool, so what did you nab?" Ron asked.

"Everything. He even said that he had something in his office he thought would make the party more fun." Seamus exclaimed.

After a few minutes of setting up the common room, the portrait door swung open revealing Professor holding a box filled with candies and crackers. "Hello again Miss Granger and Misters Potter, Weasley, Thomas and Finnigan. Now who here would like to help me with this heavy box?" He asked with a large smile on his face.

Ron walked over as Harry conjured up another table. Hermione looked around, realizing for the first time that in a few months time she was going to be an adult in the magical world. She, Harry and Ron would no longer be children.

"Hey Hermione," Hermione snapped out of her thoughts and looked over at Ron "Can you help me with this banner?"

Hermione sat on Harry's broom as it _slowly_ lifted her up to stick the banner Ron was levitating. The decorations were finished and music began playing. Everyone was getting one last night of freedom in before classes began the next day.

Professor Gordon was using the party as a chance to get a feel of the students. He made his rounds getting to know all of the students from the first through fifth years. When he got up to the sixth years he began with Lavender, Parvati and Neville, who were off near the fireplace talking. He moved from them to Dean and Seamus. Hermione noticed that he didn't spend more than a few moments with everyone. She walked away from Harry and Ron to get another cupcake, not wanting to be caught by him with them.

A minute or so after speaking with Harry and Ron, Professor Gordon finally spotted the student he had been looking for all evening.

"Miss Granger, just the student I was hoping to find." He said in a somewhat excited tone.

"Oh, hello professor. And why would that be?" She asked, slightly upset about being caught alone. Why did she have to leave Harry and Ron?

"Well, I have heard that you are muggle born along with the top of your class, quite and interesting story."

"Well professor, I study. Nothing too interesting about that." She was a little put off by his statement, as eh could tell.

"Oh, my, I did not mean for that to come out like that. My apologies. What I meant to say was that I am quite impressed, nothing about the muggle-born part, though that was an impressive coincidence."

"Oh, thank you sir." Hermione felt a slight blush come on,

"Well, I was hoping that you could help me by telling me about your past teachers and classes, like a temporary assistant. Do you think that you would be up to that?" Professor Gordon asked.

"Yes sir. No problem at all."

"Splendid! Now I will owl you about a meeting tomorrow about this and your's and your friends' detentions. Haha, don't think that I have forgotten about that." Hermione smiled. He was like a fun grandpa. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad.

A/N SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO UPDATE, I'VE BEEN GROUNDED FOR FOREVER. UPDATE FOR LAST WILL AND CHOICE IS COMING. HAPPY HALLOWEEN.


	4. Arrows

Chapter Three: Arrows

Hermione woke up the next morning in a pool of sunlight. Her auburn and chestnut hair was flowing around her like a lion's mane.

She moaned softly as she stirred in the sheets and flickered her eyes open. Looking around the room, she saw that she was in the sixth year boy's dormitory, tangled up with a heap of red, maroon, and purple.

The party only ended last night when Professor McGonagall came in and reminded them that breakfast began in six hours. Everyone shuffled off to bed, but Lavender, Parvati, Ginny and a few other seventh and fifth year girls went into the sixth year girls' dormitory so Hermione changed into her favorite purple pajamas and hung out with Harry, Ron and the guys.

She never knew that Dean worked at a soccer camp with little children during the summer, or that Seamus had a muggle girlfriend back home he had met last year at a wedding. After one night she felt closer to her housemates than she had in the past five years.

Looking over, she saw that the clock read 7:56. Hermione jumped up out of the tangle she had gotten herself into the night before, causing Harry and Ron to fall onto the ground.

"Oomph! Hermione! What was that for?" Harry asked. How many times was this going to happen to him?

"Breakfast ends in four minutes," Hermione said simply, knowing what those simple words could do on their own.

She was right. Within seconds, after a flurry of finding clothes, shoving toothbrushes in their mouths and throwing shoes onto, hopefully, the right feet, Hermione found herself facing the male population of Gryffindor sixth years. She had to hand it to them, when it came to food there was no stopping them.

All of a sudden she felt herself being lifted up and carried out of the room. She looked down and saw that Dean had put her over his shoulder.

"Dean Thomas you put me down this instant!" She laughed. "I need to get dressed!"

The guys began to laugh as Dean put her down.

"Well, we kinda liked you this way," Hermione crossed her arms, trying to hide a smirk, "but if you must, then move it!" Seamus slapped her butt, pushing her towards the stair to the girls' dormitories.

Hermione threw on a plain skirt and blouse on and grabbed her cloak. She said a spell, twisting her hair into a messy bun as she ran down the stairs.

"Okay guys! I'm read-aaah!" Ron grabbed Hermione's hand and pulled her to the Great Hall, along with Harry, Neville, Dean and Seamus.

The six made it to the great hall right before the food disappeared, but were able to grab a few muffins and rolls. Hermione sighed as she sat down. They were going to make their schedules in a few minutes and her sixth year at Hogwarts would officially begin.

"What do you guys have first?" Hermione asked her friends. Overnight she had apparently become the girl of the group. There was now a new strong bond between the small group of friends.

"Er, free." Ron said.

"Same," Harry added.

"Muggle studies," Seamus read.

"Charms," Neville told them.

"Arithmacy," Hermione smiled at this.

"Oh thank god Dean! Me too. See you guys later." Everyone left in different directions to get to class.

"I never knew you took arithmacy." Hermione said as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

"Actually I only just go into it. Dumbledore told me that if I was able to make up the work from last year I could take it this year." Dean explained.

"Wait, why not just take it last year?"

"Not interested, but this summer I was reading a bit and it seems interesting." Dean shrugged.

"This is it," Hermione said, stopping at a portrait of an old wizard.

"Hermione! Over here!" Hermione looked around the Great Hall and saw her friends sitting at the table.

"Hey guys. How were your mornings?" She asked as she sat down between Harry and Neville.

Lunch was going wonderfully until they were disturbed by the three owls that came flying into the Great Hall and landing beside their plates.

'Your detention will be served tonight at eight in my office.

Professor Gordon'

Hermione had s second note with her owl.

'Please come to my office at six-thirty tonight.'

Professor Gordon?" Hermione knocked on the door.

"Yes, yes. Come in Miss Granger. Come in."

Hermione walked into the classroom and looked around. The room had a warm, cozy feeling to it. There was a roaring fire, the walls were covered with pictures, and there was a couch with several chairs on one end of the room. On the other end of the room was a large desk with one chair on one side and three on the other.

"Thank you so much Miss Granger, why don't I give Gryffindor ten points? That sounds good." Professor Gordon was sitting on one of the armchairs near the couch with a cup of tea in his hand.

"Thank you so much Professor." Hermione smiled.

"Take a seat, please. Here, have some tea." A tea kettle began to pour some tea into a ceramic cup. Hermione sat down on the couch. "Now let's begin with your first year. Professor Quirril?"

Hermione spent the better part of the next hour and fifteen minutes telling Professor Gordon of her past professors and their teaching methods and subjects.

Professor Gordon also seemed to be quite interested in her's, Harry's and Ron's adventures during the past years.

"Would you like a sandwich? He asked her at around seven-forty five.

Hermione hadn't gone to dinner in order to get a book from the library.

"Yes, thank you." Hermione said as she took a sandwich from a platter her had conjured up.

"Take a break. I think that we have enough planned for a while until I get a feel for the students." The two leaned back and relaxed. It had been a very busy hour and a half.

"Professor Gordon, we're here." Harry said as he and Ron walked into the room.

"Splendid, splendid. Please take a seat while I get everything needed." Professor Gordon stood up from his seat and walked over to his desk.

"So what's planned for Defense Against the Dark Arts Hermione?" Harry asked as he sat beside her on the couch.

"Sorry Harry. You'll have to see tomorrow." Hermione smirked. She took a sip of her tea and looked at the planner left out on the table.

"Here we are!" Professor Gordon came over carrying a small cauldron, a quiver of arrows and a stack of parchment.

"Here we go! He put everything on a coffee table in front of the couch. "Now what I will be needing you to do is dip the point of the arrow into the potion and then just _tap_ the top piece of parchment. The potion should do the rest. There are only about fifty, so this shouldn't take too long."

Ron, Harry and Hermione spent the better part of the next hour and a half ending out these letters, not finding out anything more that what Professor Gordon told then before they began. The whole project went along silently for a bit, but Professor Gordon conjured up a music player and played the soundtrack for 'Dirty Dancing', making their time more enjoyable and making the time go by quicker.

"Well thank you very much, all of you. And I will see you at breakfast tomorrow. Good night." Professor Gordon said as he walked the trio out of his office.

"So you sleeping in the girls' dormitory tonight Hermione?" Ron asked as they neared the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"I think so, why?" Hermione replied.

"Well, we were all thinking of having another party tonight. Just the sixth years. The other girls are invited." Harry said. "We're going to push all the mattresses together and play card games and such."

"Or we can have all the sixth years come and we can use the Room of Requirement?" Hermione suggested.

"To the owlery." Harry said, turning around and bringing Hermione with him, Ron was going to tell the rest of the Gryffindors.


	5. The Queen

Chapter Four: The Queen

Hermione, don't you think that we should just keep it to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor?" Harry asked as Hermione wrote out a letter to the Slytherins.

"Guys, Dumbledore wants inter-house unity and I think that this would be a good idea. Plus it would be no fair not to invite them just because we hate them and they want us dead." Hermione replied as she finished up the invitation. "Besides, what are the chances that they'll actually come."

"Bring some firewhiskey and we won't say no to anything." The trio whipped their heads around to see Draco Malfoy leaning against the doorframe with his arms and ankles crossed. Behind him stood Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and Millicent Bullestrode.

"Hello Malfoy," Hermione stood up and looked straight at Draco, trying not to be too tense. "Well this will save an owl a trip. We, the Gryffindors, were planning on having an opening to the new, and our last, school year with a seventh-year sleepover in the Room of Requirement."

"Hm, let's see, spend a night with Gryffindors, or do anything else in the world?" Draco looked around at his cronies. "Tough choice."

The Slytherins snickered from behind him as a smirk formed on his face.

"Fine then, don't come." Ron said, smiling. "Not like you were really wanted anyway."

"Who ever said we weren't coming?" The trio froze in place. Hermione tried to cover the shocked look from her face as quickly as possible. "I just asked what they wanted to do." Draco uncrossed his arms and ankles and headed out of the door, turning his head before completely leaving the room. "Be there at ten."

Hermione turned to Harry and Ron and gave them a weak smile.

"Don't even try it Hermione," Harry said.

"Come on. Let's go tell the guys." Hermione said, walking reluctantly back to Gryffindor tower.

"YOU WHAT?" Dean yelled.

"WELL IT'S NOT LIKE I THOUGHT THEY WOULD COME!" Hermione yelled, trying to defend herself.

"Guys! Shut up!" Harry yelled. "Dean, Neville, Seamus, Lavender, Parvati,"

"Hem, hem"

"Ginny, it wasn't her fault." Harry rolled his eyes. "Hermione was just trying to help to promote inter-house unity, like Dumbledore is continuously urging us to do. Not to mention that they overheard her and practically invited themselves."

"Yeah, they kinda did," Ron sighed.

"Fine," Seamus smirked, "but when they fall asleep, PRANK TIME!" He threw his fist into the air.

The common room filled with cheering and laughing.

"NO!" Hermione's outburst broke the noise filling the room. "Guys, come on! The whole point of actually allowing them to come and actually giving them the right information and everything is to promote inter-house unity! We have hated these bastards since we were _eleven_! ELEVEN! That was, what, six, seven years ago!" The room was now silent. "I hate these guys as much as you all do, maybe even more. For goodness sake, who here other than myself and Ron has hit Malfoy? And I'm not talking about with spells or in defense! Can we at least _try_?"

"We're sorry Hermione," Neville said.

"No, it's okay," Hermione sighed. "To be honest, I don't want them coming just as much as you do. I just didn't want to let Dumbledore down."

"And we won't Hermione." Dean put his arm around her shoulder.

"Got guilt?" Hermione looked up and smiled. Before any of the guys could say anything, she ran up the stairs to pack her bag.

"Not too shabby Gryffs," Draco said as he walked into the room. It was filled with squishy sleeping bags, food, flashlights, and everything else essential for a good sleepover.

"Why thank you Malfoy," Hermione replied. She watched as he entered the room, surprisingly alone.

He was the first one to arrive after Hermione, who had come early to set up. Harry, Ron and the rest of Gryffindor were waiting for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to help them if they had any trouble finding the room.

"So where are the rest of your cronies?" Hermione asked absentmindedly, not even thinking. She picked up a bowl of popcorn and brought it over to the chocolate fondue set.

"Emptying their bags of all the practical joke stuff." He grabbed a piece of popcorn and popped it into his mouth. "And yours?" He raised his eyebrow.

"Same." Hermione had just realized that civil words had just been spoken. Well, as civil as they had had in the past six years. "I guess our houses aren't so different."

"Don't even joke mudblood." Draco whipped his head around and looked at her, square in the eye. "Your house is _nothing_ compared to Slytherin. Inferior and superior are two different things."

Hermione was ready to slap him when she heard a small commotion in the doorway. Turning around, she saw Hannah Abbot, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Morag MacDougal of Hufflepuff in the doorway. With them were Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin, Sally-Anne Perks and John Moon of Ravenclaw.

"Sorry not everyone from our house is here, Hermione." Hannah said, motioning towards Draco in the corner.

"Yeah, same with us," Padma said. "Where's Parvati and Lavender?"

"Oh, they should be here soon." Hermione looked around the crowd to see if anyone else was in the hallway. "Why doesn't everyone just put their stuff down? As soon as the rest of the group comes we will begin the night."

They only had to wait a few minutes until the sounds of Harry and Blaise arguing in the hallway. It took Hermione and Draco pulling their friends apart (Hermione pulling Harry by the ear in their case) to calm everything down.

Everyone was already in pajamas. Hermione had picked out a pair of long, purple pants with a drawstring and a white tank-top. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was barefoot.

The large group of twenty-six teenagers sat in a circle, with Hermione standing in the middle.

"Welcome, seventh years-"

"Hem, hem"

"And Ginny, to our seventh, and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! We have all gone through much over the past several years, and I am positive that after tonight, this semester, this year we will overcome more! From the weakening of Voldemort for nearly eleven years, to his rise, then final defeat by our very own Harry Potter. The Chamber of Secrets, the Triwizard Tournament, even Umbrige, we have overcome heartbreak, fear, hatred, and more. When we leave the castle at the end of the year, I know that you will all walk out with bonds-"

"We don't care Granger!" Pansy suddenly called out. "You said this would be fun and I say Truth or Dare!"

Applause and cheering rang in the room.

Hermione looked at Pansy and held out her hand. A bottle suddenly appeared in it. "Ask and ye shall receive." She handed the bottle over to Pansy. "You first."

The girls switched spots. Hermione sat down between Blaise and Theodore Nott and Pansy kneeled in the center of the circle and looked around.

"The name of the game is Truth or Dare. You get pointed to by the bottle, you have to choose whether you want to do something or answer a question, in lamest terms. If you do not do your dare, you must…" Pansy thought for a minute. "If you refuse to do your dare you must take off an item of clothing."

"I just placed a spell over everyone. If you choose truth and do not answer truthfully, you will change color." Hermione said all of a sudden.

"Nice work Granger. Looks like being a know-it-all _does_ come in handy. Now as I was saying, I think this should be a little more interesting, but for the first round, why don't we try it with just this. Now who is my first victim?" Pansy spun the bottle, which landed on Ginny. "Woah! What's the sixth-year doing here?"

"I happen to have been invited, and I pick truth." Ginny spat out. "Wanna play it safe knowing you Parkinson."

"Okay, well then since you feel like being so truthful, then how about you tell everyone in the room why Blaise and Potter were fighting before. Not that your brother wasn't fighting against Finnigan and Theodore's restraints." Pansy sneered.

Ginny's face turned bright red. "Me," she said in a small voice.

"Excuse me, I don't think I heard you properly. Would you mind repeating that?" Pansy put her hand to her ear.

"ME!" Ginny buried her tomato face in her hands.

"Your turn," Pansy said sweetly. She handed the bottle over to Ginny and sat in her place between Harry and Ron.

Ginny spun the bottle and looked around the room, trying to think of what she would do. The bottle landed on Hannah Abbot.

"Hannah, truth or dare?" Ginny asked.

Hannah giggled and thought for a minute. "Um, truth."

"Okay, um," Ginny looked up. "This is hard, I was hoping for a dare." Hannah had a boyfriend and told nothing but the truth one hundred percent of the time. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Abbot, are you still a virgin?" Crabbe asked.

"Yes," she squeaked, slowly turning orange.

The whole room cracked up at the sight before them. Everyone knew that she and Ernie had had sex after a year of dating when they were fifteen.

"Well, considering that you're turning orange, I think that that stupid question was answered." Ginny said as she switched spots with Hannah.

The bottle this time landed on Hermione. "Hermione, truth or dare?" Hannah knew that as soon as she got someone to pick truth she would ask them how everyone knew that she wasn't a virgin.

"Dare!" Hermione smiled.

"Okay, well then I dare you to snog Morag." Everyone looked from Hermione to Morag, who was slowly turning red.

Hermione stood up from where she had been sitting and kneeled in front of Morag. She put her hands on his neck and began to kiss him. He instantly began kissing back. Hermione continued what she was doing, waiting for Hannah to tell her it was okay to stop. The kiss went on for about three minutes before she heard Draco call out, "Oy, Abbot. When are you going to tell her to stop? This isn't exactly the most exciting dare to watch."

Hannah rolled her eyes and told Hermione it was okay to stop. Hermione slowly stood up and walked to the center of the circle. She felt bad for Morag. It wasn't exactly unknown that he had liked her since third year and she had never heard any complaints from the guys she had kissed in the past, not that it was a very long list. Quickly snapping out of her thoughts, she spun the bottle, which landed on Blaise.

"Truth or dare?" she asked.

"Dare"

"I dare you to spin the bottle and give a lap dance to whoever it lands on." Hermione handed him the bottle and sat in his spot beside Hannah.

Blaise spun the bottle and it landed on Ron. Everyone began to roar with laughter as Blaise walked over to Ron and started to move his hips. Hermione conjured up a stereo and had the song 'Baby Boy' begin to play. It wasn't her first choice, but she thought that the speed and lyrics would make the dare more interesting.

"And don't forget, don't stop 'till I get enough," Hermione sang, changing the word 'you' to 'I'. She loved that song and used that line as often as possible.

Blasé began to move with the music, and quite gracefully. All the girls were hooting and holding up paper money that had appeared. The scene was hilarious. Hermione finally let him stop when the song had ended. When Blaise walked to the middle of the circle Hermione saw that Ron had a frozen look of shock on his face.

"GRANGER!" Hermione jumped at Harry's call.

"What?" She asked.

"The bottle seems to like you," Blaise explained, looking down at the bottle, which was pointing at her. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Hermione said.

"Was MacDougal your first snog, and if not, who else have you ever kissed?" Blaise asked.

"No. I've kissed Viktor Krum, a couple of boys from my neighborhood who none of you would know, and, do kisses in Truth or dare count?"

"Yeah."

"Er, Ginny, my friend Alyssa, Dean-"

"WOAH! Back up!" Everyone looked at Pansy's excited face. "Two-Shoes-Granger is bi?"

"They were all on dares." Hermione was _really_ wishing she had chosen 'dare' right now.

"Okay, you can end the list there, Granger." Blaise looked at her with a bored expression on his face. "We wouldn't want Pansy to wet herself."

Hermione blushed and rose to go to the center of the circle. She spun the bottle, which landed on Ernie.

The game continued for another thirty minutes, in which time nothing interesting had happened. The bottle seemed to steer clear of the Gryffindors and Slytherins. The most interesting thing that had happened was Hannah yelling at Ernie for bragging about their having sex when he had promised not to.

The bottle finally landed on Draco who had to do a strip-tease. From Draco it went to Harry, who told everyone that the reason why he and Blaise were fighting was because Blaise had made a comment about Ginny and his breaking up (because of the war and her not wanting him to worry as much about her during the war) and how he wouldn't mind 'tapping that'. Harry dared Crabbe to snog Goyle. Pansy was the first person to take off an item of clothing when she refused to give Ron a foot massage. She spun the bottle, which landed on Theodore who had to chug a bottle of Firewhiskey using only his feet. Theodore, highly intoxicated, got Blaise to tell everyone that he hated every step-father he's ever had and that he wanted his mother to give up her life of gold digging. Blaise spun the bottle, which, once again, landed on Hermione.

"Truth or dare?" He asked, very frustrated at his friend for having him admit what he had just said.

"Dare," Hermione couldn't resist.

"Brave little Gryff, huh? Well I think we can help you with that." Blaise picked up the bottle. "Spin this ten times. Each person it lands on, you have to snog for one minute." He sat back down into his original spot and watched Hermione spin the bottle once, Harry, twice, Ron, another time, Draco. By the end of her spins, she had to kiss Harry, Ron, Draco, Pansy, Justin, Ginny, Crabbe, Mandy, John and Blaise himself.

Hermione sighed as she conjured up an egg timer and walked over to Ron. The kiss between the two of them was awkward, almost as awkward as he next kiss with Harry. At the end of both kisses, though, both boys were hiding smiles and looks of amazement. Sighing once more, she walked over to the other side of the circle and kneeled in front of a scowling Draco. Hermione put her lips on hers, but he did not respond until she pinched the back of is neck, causing him to open his mouth and give her tongue entry to his. After that he closed his eyes and let her proceed, even helping her to enjoy it a little more. By the end of all kisses Ginny was red, once more along with Mandy, Pansy was admitting that Hermione had some skills, Justin and John had dreamy looks on their faces and Crabbe was wondering why mud tasted like peppermint and cherries. The most interesting response, though, was Blaise's. He was smirking at her with a look in his eyes that no one could place.

"I'm impressed Granger," he said. "To be honest I thought you would strip or something. I have to hand it to you, though, nine out of ten."

"And where did my other point go?" Hermione asked him, feeling very confident.

"I take blood into consideration," Blaise said monotone.

Hermione's look of confidence turned into one of pure hatred. Catching this, Seamus ran between them and suggested that the game continue.

Hermione took the bottle and spun it. After the longest spin, it finally landed on Draco.

"Truth or dare Malfoy?"

"Dare," he sneered.

The game continued for several hours until no one else could think of anything more to do. The girls started to play music and dance in the middle of the room with whichever boys they could drag over, while the remaining boys watched horror movies on the big screen T.V.

Everyone eventually went to bed at about three in the morning, looking forward to the new school year.

The next morning every seventh year at Hogwarts attending the sleepover, and Ginny, made their way slowly back to their own towers to get ready for breakfast.

"Great slumber party, Hermione," Neville said sleepily as they walked back to the tower with Dean and Seamus. Harry, Ron and Ginny had left earlier so they could get to breakfast.

The boys nodded their heads in agreement.

"Thanks guys, but it was _our_ slumber party." Hermione yawned.

"Uh huh. But you were the queen."


	6. Dear Student 432

Chapter Five: Dear Student #432

CLANKCLANKCLANK Dumbledore hit his goblet softly with his knife, getting the attention of the entire Great Hall.

"Students, children, scholars!" He called out cheerfully to the room of students. "In a matter of minutes there shall be a change in the weather in this cafeteria of ours. Ah, here it comes now."

Suddenly, a shower of arrows came flying into the room, one landing in front of each person.

"Each of these arrows contains a number!" Dumbledore explained. "We shall be beginning a new letter exchanging program! Pen pals, as they are known mostly. You have the option of continuing this after five letters have been sent from each person, but the feeling must be told to myself or your Head of House! If your pen pal does not wish to continue, but you do, we will pair you up with a new pen pal as soon as possible." He clapped his hands. "Well, that is all that needs to be said for now, oh, wait, I almost forgot, _no names_."

The hall filled with a small buzz as everyone looked at their arrows. There was a list of rules similar to what Dumbledore had mentioned before.

"I don't remember making all these arrows," Hermione said excitedly as she put her arrow into her bag. She wanted to open her letter in secret. Knowing Dumbledore, it was an inter-house thing.

"Well maybe Professor Gordon did the rest before we arrived," Ron suggested, his mouth filled with bacon.

"Ron, swallow first, jeez!" Dean said in a disgusted voice.

"YAWN What's going on?" Seamus asked as he lifted his head from his porridge, which was now covering half of his face.

The entire Gryffindor table that could see him was cracking up.

"Wh-what? What's so funny?" He asked.

"Here," Hermione took out her wand, pointed it at Seamus, and sent little blue sparks in his face. The table roared even louder with laughter. "I just hate it to be uneven."

Seamus's entire face was covered in porridge. He felt something drip from his face, and realizing what Hermione had made even. He grabbed a napkin and wiped the food from his face.

"Sorry Seamus, couldn't resist," Hermione said, winking at him.

'Dear Student #43-2

I will admit that I have never done something like this. It is something very out of character. I'm not one to try things new, but I will give this a shot as long as everything you read stays anonymous and quiet. For the time being we are friends. I will not ask you what house you are in, unless you want to tell me. I will tell you, though, that I am looking forward to giving this a shot. Please reply soon, for I am looking forward to your first letter.

Student #43-1'


	7. Ron Has Thoughts!

Chapter Six: Ron Has Thoughts!

Hermione re-read the letter that had fallen on her lap just a few minutes ago. Looking around, she saw other people sharing their letters with friends, though it was against the rules.

"Is that from your pen pal, Hermione?"

Hermione looked up at Harry, who was taking a seat across from her.

"Oh, um, yeah." Hermione folded up the piece of parchment and put it in her bag. "Have you gotten one yet?"

"Nope, sent one though a few minutes ago." He began to pile food onto his plate.

"Cool," Hermione wondered if Harry was her pen pal, but Dumbledore had forbidden them from trying to find out who their pen pals were.

"Yeah, I just wonder who it is," Harry said.

"I've actually been thinking," Ron plopped down beside Hermione, "and it really wouldn't be too hard to find out who your pen pal is if you ask the right questions."

"Ron!" Hermione was stunned.

"What?"

"That's brilliant!"

Harry choked on the bits of food in his mouth. "_Hermione_!"

"Well it's not like I'm telling him to do it."

'Dear Student #431

I will keep your confidence and not share what you read. You do not have to worry. My friends will call me one of the most trustworthy people they know, not to sound 'big headed'. This is my first time doing something like this as well, and am quite excited. I am also excited that you are giving this a chance and that we are friends. I am also embarrassed for writing something as lame as that. I do not think it is the best idea to reveal our houses just yet. I was actually talking to my friend this morning and he was talking about how, with the right questions, we could find out who the other is, which could actually ruin this under certain circumstances. Maybe instead we can begin by discussing books, or music. I think that the muggle born/ wizard born thing could also interfere with the whole anonymous thing, but I know of many bands and books famous in both worlds. How do you enjoy spending your free time? Maybe that could be a good conversation starter.

Student #432

P.S. Maybe instead of numbers we could come up with nicknames?'

Hermione's day went slowly as she anxiously anticipated a reply from her pen pal. She was humiliated about much of what she had written and wanted to know what he would say back, if it was a he. Should she have asked 431 if they were a girl or a boy? Questions filled her mind as she tried to focus on Professor Gordon's lecture on, well, she wasn't quite sure.

The bell finally rang. Hermione jumped up, grabbed her books and ran to the Gryffindor tower. When she got into her dorm, she went through the pictures she had taken last night, most candid. There were pictures of 'Truth or Dare', the dancing, the food fight, everything. After nearly an hour, she had found a picture or a few of the Slytherins preparing pranks on the Gryffindors with a picture of the Gryffindors doing the same to the Slytherins three pictures later.

Hermione giggled as she made duplicates of the pictures to put in a collage she was making (she wanted to keep the originals uncut or drawn/written on).

"What's so funny Hermione?" Hermione looked up at Lavender and Parvati in the doorway.

"Hey guys," Hermione sat up from where she was lying down on her bed. "I was actually just looking at some pictures from last night."

Parvati squealed as she and Lavender jumped down and sat on either side of Hermione. "Let us see!"

"Well, this is you guys with the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs," Hermione said as she showed them the next picture. "You guys were _hilarious_!"

The three spent the next hour reminiscing the previous night and finishing up Hermione's collage.

"So Hermione," Lavender said as they headed down to dinner, "have you heard from your pen pal yet?"

"Yeah, this afternoon, actually." Hermione waved Dean and Seamus over.

"I think Dumbledore is off his rocker," Parvati said as she took a seat.

"What're we trashing?" Neville asked from beside Lavender. Hermione hadn't realized it until now, but this was the closest she had ever seen their year.

"Pen pal program of Dumbledore's," Lavender explained.

"Oh, I don't think it's that bad," Hermione said, blushing as she put her hands in her lap.

A/N Hey all. I'm having a vote for who Hermione's pen pal is. Pick a number between one and three

P.S. This will affect the next chapter. I want at least 10 votes before I update.


	8. Unknown Known and Emerald Love

VOTE RESULTS:

With Names: D-5

B-1

T-0

With Numbers (which you were supposed to do anyway): D-0

B-1

T-3

THE WINNER: DON'T YOU WISH YOU KNEW! MWAHAHA!

But now that you guys have seen the poll so far, I'm giving you one more chance to finish your voting. Keep voting either 1, 2, or 3, I'm not telling you which number is which letter. P.S. I will only be accepting numbers so anything else you vote for will be ignored like the fruit platter in a dessert buffet.

Chapter Seven: Unknown Known and Emerald Love

Dear Student #422

I must admit that I was quite excited about your letter. To be quite honest, I was not expecting the letter that you wrote. In fact, I was expecting you to start talking about yourself. I completely agree with the whole anonymous thing. I will tell you that I am a boy and that I am a student from fourth to seventh year (I will not tell you my specific year to continue with the trying to keep this as anonymous as possible thing). I am a decent reader, if I find a good book I'll read it, maybe even more than once if I really enjoy it. My favorite book is one that I read when I was in grammar school, but I read it on my own. It is a muggle book called 'Catcher in the Rye'. I won't tell you how I came upon it, because it will tell you whether I am a muggle or wizard born. My favorite part is that even in the end after he goes through all the stuff he talks about, he is still the same person he began as and nothing about him changed. He didn't end up changed for the better, having a better relationship with his parents, or anything. It's like a book that's about everything and nothing. Sorry, I've been going on about this book, being so deep about it, when really, to be honest again, I'm usually not like this. I'm also, like I said before, not much of a reader. Now that you made me think and write about mine, what is your favorite book?

-Ignotus Notus

'Ignotus Notus?' Hermione re-read in the privacy of the library. 'I wonder what that means.'

"Hey Hermione," Hermione looked up and saw Harry plop down in the seat beside her. "What are you up to?"

"Uh, nothing much." '_Is_ he my penpal? Would Dumbledore actually put us together?'

"Hello! Earth to Hermione."

"Oh, sorry Harry," Hermione said. "Um, Harry, I'm looking for a good book to read. Do you have any good suggestions?"

Harry looked shocked. "You want _my_ opinion on a book to read?" Hermione nodded. "Okay. Well, my favorite book growing up was 'Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory', but I bet you already read it when you were three." He laughed.

Hermione forced a laugh and let out an unnoticed sigh of relief. But wait, if Harry wasn't her pen pal, then who was?

"So how's your pen pal thing going?" Hermione asked as she hid her letter a little more in her book.

"Good," Harry nodded his head lightly as he took out a piece of parchment. "I was actually about to write her a letter."

"So you know it's a girl?" Hermione asked as Harry took a piece of parchment out of his bag.

"Yeah. She went the first letter and just straight up started talking about herself."

"Harry Potter you are blushing!" Hermione hissed with a smile to challenge the Cheshire cat as she leaned over towards him.

"Shut up." Harry was blushing ferociously. "All I know about her is that she is shy, but opinionated, enjoys flying, and a few more bits and pieces that match my list."

"Wow, the female Harry Potter," Hermione sat up and shook her head slowly. "What in the world will we do?"

Harry hit Hermione's arm playfully, after all, boys don't slap.

"Shush! I need to write my letter to her." Harry took a quill and some ink out of his bag. "How about you?" He asked without looking up from his quill that seemed to glide from one side of the parchment to the other.

"I was just about to," Hermione said, taking the letter out of her book.

"What's the kid like?" He paused a bit and scratched out a few words.

"Well, we've only sent three letters all together, one from me and two from him, but he seems like a guy that I might like to talk to." Hermione took out a piece of parchment and a quill. "He's honest, straight up, and obviously intelligent by the way he writes."

"Cool."

'Dear Ignotus Notus,

Unknown Known? I won't ask, but I must admit that I find it quite fascinating that you would choose such a name, especially in Latin. Now I have to come up with one just as clever, haha. So my favorite book would have to be 'A Separate Peace'. It is one of the saddest books I have ever read, and I've read a lot of books, but it just has a way of sticking to you. It's a story of two best friends and their year at their boarding school. I' not going to tell you anymore because even the tiniest detail could lead me to giving the entire book away, I'll make you a deal. You read my book and I'll read yours. 'Catcher in the Rye' sounds quite interesting. It would be a nice break from the random switching from teenage girl drama novels (I'm a girl, by the way) and historical/factual books. To be honest, the dramas are a sort of secret of mine. It isn't exactly me to be what one would call a 'girlie girl', which is only slightly true. I enjoy looking nice, but I don't feel that I have to do it in a constant or to please people or anything.

So now that I am already off the topic of books, how about music? I enjoy a large variety of music, but my favorite music at the time is soundtracks. It's not a specific genre and when listened to in a constant, depending on the soundtrack you can just understand the story of what's going on. The soundtrack that I'm hooked on right now is called "Coyote Ugly". It has a bunch of music from the nineties, plus the story for where it's from is just so amazing. It's a wonderful story. Maybe I can summarize it another time.

Must get going to dinner. Please write me back with your favorite music and maybe a new topic.

Émeraude Amour

P.S. Émeraude Amour is just a practice name. I'm not sure if it really suits me, but I just loved it the second I thought of it.'

Hermione sat down at the Gryffindor table between Dean and Ron and looked up at Harry. The two shared a secret look at each other confirming the sending of their letters. Everyone else seemed to not be happy with their pen pals, badmouthing the 'freaks' they were paired up with.

Two tables down a small swarm of owls left the group that had flown into the hall. A head looked up over his goblet and smiled as an owl landed in front of him. He opened the letter under the table, not wanting anyone to read over his shoulder, not that anyone cared that much in anything that wasn't about them. A small smile escaped his lips, but he quickly wiped it off his face before anyone noticed.

'Émeraude Amour. Emerald love.'


	9. Brought Upon Yourself

VOTE RESULTS:

With Names: Draco-9

Blaise Zabini-3

Theodore Nott-0

With Numbers (which you were supposed to do anyway): 1-2

2-3

3-4

THE WINNER: Look down---\/

Chapter Eight: Brought Upon Yourself

"Émeraude Amour, Emerald Love," a Slytherin boy whispered to himself. He looked around the room. Could his pen pal be a Slytherin?

He re-read the letter before leaving the hall to run down to the dungeons to write a letter back to Émeraude Amour. This letter-writing thing was a fun idea, though he wouldn't admit it.

"Slithering serpent," he said, opening up the portrait hole.

"Hey Theo."

Theo looked up at Draco Malfoy on the leather couch in front of him.

"Hey Malfoy," Theo replied, taking a seat in the large armchair across the coffee table.

"What have you got there?" He asked.

Theo looked down at his hands, completely forgetting the letter he had just been reading.

"Er-nothing. Letter from my mum." Theo put the letter in his robe pocket.

"She trying to get you to, um, you know-" Draco tapped his left forearm with his fist.

Theo shook his head slowly. "The Dark Lord might be gaining power, but I think Dumbledore might have something up his sleeve."

"Yeah, especially with that whole pen pal thing." Draco sat up in the couch. "How's that going for you anyway?"

Theo looked around the room. It was empty save a few portraits who were wrapped up in their own lives.

"Well, um, it's okay. I guess. You?"

"I got paired with some Ravenclaw chick." Draco smirked. "We're meeting tonight in that room Potter found the other year."

Theo rolled his eyes and let out a small chuckle. "Draco, you're too much for your own good."

Draco stood up and stretched as he said, "that I am, Theo." The two boys laughed as they headed up the staircase to the dormitories. "So what's up with your pen pal?"

Theo paused on the step. Should he tell Draco? He _was_ his best friend. With him and Blaise, the three had been best friends since diapers. "Well, she's an upperclassman, reads, and has an interesting taste in music."

Draco turned around and looked at Theo. "Interesting."

"Back off Draco," Theo pushed past Draco and continued up the stairs. "We haven't spoken enough to ask questions as personal as that."

"You're interested," Draco smiled as he chased Theo up the stairs. "Haha. I can tell."

Theo flopped on his bed and took out his wand.

He aimed at the door, took aim and said "petrificus totalus," lazily as Draco walked through the door. He smirked at the frozen figure that fell to the floor. Theo took out his letter and continued to finish it before writing his response.

"You only brought this upon yourself," Theo chuckled as he gave his letter to his owl.


	10. Detention

A/N Okay, so I just realized that for the past 8 chapters I have changed Dean's last name from Thomas to Theodore. I am hoping that that was the work of my computer, but would like to apologize. ON WITH THE STORY

p.s. I would like to apologize for making Ignotus Notus Theodore Nott, but I have a feeling you might like what's coming up with that, ;-)

Chapter Nine: Detention

Draco walked proudly back through the entrance to the Slytherin common room. He was coming back from a very interesting shag with his Ravenclaw pen pal. Not only did they have to stop in the middle in very awkward positions as Filch passed their hiding spot, but they had not one, but two shags.

As he climbed the stairs, reminiscing his quite memorable night, he heard somewhat maniacal chuckling coming from his dormitory. Naturally, this is quite common between some of the Slitherins, but usually he was either in the middle or aware of what was going on, neither of which was true in the situation. He opened the door without a sound and followed the laugher to Theo's bed. Theodore was always the darkest of his friends. He was probably just reading some book. Draco threw himself into his bed, not even bothering to change out of his outfit, which was actually growing more and more comfortable as he drifted off into sleep.

Across the castle and up several flights of stairs Hermione was reading the book she had ordered by owl post while she listened to LeAnn Rimes sing "The Right Kind of Wrong". She let a few lines slip past her lips softly as she turned the pages. All of a sudden an owl flew in and landed on the foot of her bed. He dropped the letter from his beak and flew back out the window.

Hermione lunged at the letter and tore it open

Émeraude Amour

Quite an interesting name with an interesting taste in music. I must admit that I have never met a person whose favorite type of music was something as random as showtunes. I listen to a lot of classical music. For some reason the more dramatic the music, the calmer it makes me, plus it doesn't have words distracting me from studying, which is kinda a downside, haha.

Now for a new topic, what shall I pick? How about favorite class? Or maybe what do you want to do when you leave Hogwarts?

I have to go now. My dorm mates are starting to come upstairs,

Sweet dreams,

Ignotus Notus

Hermione read the letter over again. It was a very short letter. And why had he not told her what his favorite class was or what he wanted to be when he leaves school? Maybe he just didn't want to be disturbed by his dorm mates, but wanted to send the letter as soon as possible.

She turned to look as her watch. It was nearing two in the morning. Hermione put her letter in her book as a bookmark and placed the two in her trunk at the foot of her bed and went to sleep.

Six hours later Hermione was running late to potions. She ran down the stairs while her feet decided to trip when she was one step away from the classroom, causing her to fall face first in front of her Advanced Potions class at the feet of Professor Snape and his greasy hair.

"Sorry," she mumbled, picking up her books and scattered papers from the floor. She stood up, smoothed her skirt, and limped to a seat in the back of the room as though nothing had happened at all.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for coming in late and disturbing my class," Snape droned. He tapped the board and the instructions for a potion appeared on the board. "Who here can tell me the name of this potion? Potter."

"Er-"

"Wrong. Malfoy."

Hermione wasn't even paying attention. She was busy rubbing her sore ankle she had twisted during her fall. When she looked up she recognized the ingredients. "That's the recipe for my great gran's double chocolate chip cookies," she blurted out.

The room turned to Hermione.

"You mean those rocks you were trying to kill Potter and Weasley with?" Draco joked. He was in a very good mood this morning.

Hermione sent a dust ball from the floor up his nose, noticed by all but Snape, who had his back turned to the class as he re-read the board. The entire class, including some Slytherins, began laughing as Draco struggled to blow it out of his nose.

"Well, I assume it can be used for baking," Snape suddenly said, silencing all but a few snickers. He turned around and looked at Hermione. "The headmaster said that he wants you to spend this year learning how to make potions from everyday, household items. He suggested we started with this one." The class watched as Snape walked up to Hermione and inspected her. "Are you quite sure, Ms. Granger, that your family has no magical blood whatsoever in your line?"

"No, I mean yes," Hermione replied, becoming nervous about the small space between herself and the potions master.

Snape gave her one last look-over before walking back to the front of the room to continue the lesson.

"If concocted properly, as I am sure Ms. Granger did not, this potion can be used as a healing sab. (A/N did I use the word right?)" Snape looked at each of the students. They were reading the board, trying to figure out how Hermione could have turned it into rocks. Snape rolled his eyes. "She was not supposed to bake it unless she wanted to preserve it for storage for the _distant_ future."

Hermione blushed. How could all this be happening? Well, her great grandmother never made such good cookies, which was why her mother and grandmother never used this recipe, but she just thought that the two of them shared some sort of horrible baking gene.

"Begin now. You have one and one half hours."

Everyone rushed up to grab their ingredients, checking the board to make sure they had everything. Hermione noticed that every detail on the board was the same as it was in her family's recipe book, save the few steps for making the chocolate chips and such. For that she just grabbed a cup of chocolate.

"Oy, Granger!" Hermione turned to face Malfoy from the table to her left. "Try to remember, this, liquid," he pointed at the board, "this not."

When he transfigured one of his chocolate chips into a rock Hermione began to fume. She turned the rock back into a chocolate chip and sent it to join the dust ball. Unfortunately, it was unable to get too far up and became stuck. This time the laughter was more like a roar that spread through the room before Snape had enough time to reach Hermione to scold her.

"Nuh uh," Hermione caught him. She had enough confidence and adrenaline to stop Snape as he opened his mouth. "If you want to lecture me, take points away, or give me detention then I demand you do the same for Malfoy!"

A smirk came to Snape's face. He looked down at the petite girl. "Fifty points, detention and Dumbledore." Hermione stared at him, trying to stare him down, refusing to move from where she was standing. "Now!"

"No," she said simply.

"One hundred more points. Care to make it two?"

The class watched in awe of what Hermione was doing. No one ever expected her to do _anything_ like this.

Snape had caught on to the staring down and began to do the same, but Hermione's determination beat out his sardonic glare, not that he would verify that that was the reason why he looked away. He walked over to the fireplace and threw in a handful of green powder, calling out, not Dumbledore's name, but Professor McGonagal's, who appeared moments later.

"You are lucky I had a free period, Severus," she told him severely as she wiped the soot off of her robe. She then noticed Draco Malfoy pushing one nostril in while trying hard, with much obvious difficulty, to blow something out of the other nostril and Hermione Granger standing stiffly a few feet to his right. "What is the meaning of such disorder in this class?" she demanded. "Potter!"

"Potter will lie for his friend Professor McGonagal," Snape insisted.

"Well, out with it."

"Well, Malfoy had been getting on Hermione's case the entire class and then he insulted her baking and called her an idiot," Harry quickly explained. "So Hermione lost her temper because he's always going out of his way to make her miserable and sent a chocolate chip that he transfigured into a rock that she transfigured back into a chocolate chip into his nostril."

The stern teacher had to hide her surprise and how impressed she was as she looked from one teenegar to the other.

"But then Professor Snape saw her," Harry continued, "and Hermione got upset because h'es always punishing the Gryffindors and favoring the Slytherins and always going out of _his_ way to make _us_ miserable so she told him that if he was going to punish her or anything then Malfoy deserved something as well, so he took off either one hundred or one hundred fifty points."

"One hundred and fifty points?" McGonagall shrieked. She grabbed the desk behind her to catch herself.

"I found it was fair," Snape told her in his monotoned voice.

"Well then twenty points for Mister Malfoy's continuous badgering. And do not think that this is because I am the head of Gryffindor's house." She shook her finger at Snape. "I see and hear things that go on between these two students. And another ten for you, Severus. You know better than to abuse your position!" The class was stunned. They had never seen a teacher take points because of _another_ teacher. "You two, please come with me."

Hermione was willing to disobey Professor Snape, but she was smart enough to know never to mess with Professor McGonagall. She walked stiffly out of the room, following her head of house and followed by Malfoy, who was still trying to get rid of the chocolate chip.

"Oh for goodness sake!" Hermione whipped around, transfigured the quill in her pocket into a pair of tweezers and pulled the chocolate chip out of his nose. "You can keep these," she said, shoving the tweezers into his hand.

"Now why can't the two of you be even _that_ civil to each other?" Albus Dumbledore calmly asked the two from beside Professor McGonagall with a slight smile.

"His incessant and disgusting blowing, I could hear the mucus in your nose, by the way, was becoming irritating, even for me." Hermione huffed out, not meaning to be disrespectful to the old headmaster.

"Well if you didn't go bloody PMS-"

"Well if you weren't such an insufferable git-"

Dumbledore just stood and watched the two teenagers go at each other as though he wasn't there while Professor McGonagall listened in horror as to what they were saying to each other and the headmaster's not stopping them. After fifteen minutes they were seething, but has stopped yelling.

"Well now that you two have calmed down a bit, I think that it is time to give you two plus Professor Snape detentions with me tonight at eight o'clock fro ,how about the rest of this week and next?"

Hermione and Draco stared, dumbfounded, at the headmaster. He was giving a _professor_ detention?

"Now please return to class, and do not worry Miss Granger, I will be watching," he tapped his nose and left with a bewildered McGonagall at his heels.

Hermione turned around and walked into the classroom with a confident smile.

"And just what are you smiling at Miss Granger?" Snape asked from his desk.

"Not that I should be smiling, because I will have to spend extra time with you, but you have a detention tonight to be served with Professor Dumbledore tonight at eight for the rest of this week and next," Hermione explained. "Now if you would excuse me, I have cookie mix to make." Hermione walked over to her table and saw that her seat was being occupied by Blaise Zabini, who was unhappily sitting beside Ron and Harry. Theodore Nott, also, wasn't in his seat and was the fourth occupant at a table with the other Slytherins. "Where's my stuff?" she demanded.

Blaise pointed with his thumb over his shoulder and at the seat beside Draco.

Hermione swore under her breath and walked over to the table. Draco was already stirring the sugar and margarine in his cauldron. Hermione rolled her eyes. This day was becoming more and more unbelievable as it went on.

As soon as the period was over and Hermione had put her sab into a jar with her name permanently and an unbreakable charm on it. She rushed out the door and stalked down to her next class without Harry or Ron, where once again she was forced to sit beside Draco Malfoy. Her day could not get any worse. At least she was going to have the opportunity to write to Ignotus Notus during lunch.

Dear Ignotus Notus,

My favorite class would probably have to be charms. I don't know why, but I think it might have to do with how much fun and lighthearted it can be. I don't know, though, what I want to be when I grow up, and unfortunately I'm running out of time because I am an upperclassman, or, well, woman. I was considering being a healer, or an auror, or maybe working at the ministry if there is a different minister. I'm interested in so many fields and that only makes it hard. Maybe I can go into creature rights? I really could not be farther from knowing, though. The only thing I _do_ know is that I don't think that I will be pursuing a career as a Death Eater.

Does that tell you whether I am in Slytherin or not? Because I will just tell you now that I am not. The auror thing should have hinted that, though, and I guess you would have found out either way.

When I was younger my parents told me to be whatever I wanted to be, just as long as it doesn't involve a cult or masks. They're both healers, so I always strived to be one too, just not for the area that they do. It can get a bit smelly at times, If you knew what field they were in you would probably laugh at that joke.

I have to be getting to lunch now. Please tell me what you want to be when you grow up and your favorite class, or I'll begin to think that you are a spy trying to get information about me and revealing none about yourself…haha.

Émeraude Amour


	11. Busted

Chapter Ten: Busted

"Or I'll begin to think that you are a spy trying to get information about me and revealing none about yourself…haha. Holy shit," Draco began cracking up as he looked up at Blaise, who was also laughing at the naive girl. She had no idea who she was writing to.

"Who _is_ this girl?" Blaise asked, taking the letter from Draco's hand.

"I don't know, but she is in for a rude awakening when she finds out who her Ignotus Notus is." Draco put his hands on his hips and slowly shook his head.

"Woah, check this letter out," Blaise handed the letter to Draco. "Isn't 'Catcher in the Rye' _your_ favorite book?"

Draco smirked. "Well not all girls are attracted by books about blood, killing and torture."

"So what do you think he's gonna do?" Blaise asked.

"Trick her into giving me a good time through lying and gaining her trust, then if she's hot and has good enough blood, well, we graduate in one year."

Draco and Blaise whipped around and saw Theodore Nott leaning against the bedpost with his arms and ankles crossed and a smirk on his face. Even for the two boys, that was a little over the top.

"So I see you've found my fan mail," Theo continued calmly.

"Theo, come on," Draco tried to think of the words to describe what he thought about what Theo had just told them.

"Come on Malfoy," Theo cut him off, "it's not like you've never used a girl for some good shag. What about that Ravencalw of yours?"

Blaise looked at Draco, who casually made an hourglass figure with his hands, "after this."

"Exactly. So let me have my fun and maybe you can too when I'm done," Theo said with a wink.

"One," Draco looked down at his friend, "I don't do sloppy seconds. Two, you're sick."

"I've learned from the best," Theo raised his eyebrow. "Before you guys, I was some mischievous Ravenclaw."

"He has a point," Blaise said with a shrug. He looked at his two friends. Both had the same qualities, but with completely different personalities. "Here's what you're going to do. Nott, you don't kill this girl, and Malfoy, you, you, you tell me about this girl."

Draco smirked and began his tale about the previous night. By the time he was done they saw an owl fly out the window.

"See you guys at lunch," Theo said as he walked out of the room with a smile.

"Did he just-"

"Yeah."

Dear Émeraude Amour,

You caught me. I actually do not know what I want to be when I grow up, but my favorite class would have to be Defense Against the Dark Arts. I find the topic fascinating and it helps me to understand spells and increase my knowledge of what I think will help me most in the future. This year will be very interesting though with the new professor. Professor Gordon seems to be quite a character, but I am grateful for his letter program with Dumbledore, or you and I may never have…met. I think he has a habit, though, of favoring students, especially the Gryffindor's. I'm not saying that that's uncommon, especially with the Slytherins in Potions. Not that I'm a gossip, but have you heard about Hermione Granger's episode in Potions today first period? Snape ended up getting put in detention himself! I heard Dumbledore himself did it. Well, I must be getting to lunch. Hopefully I'll see you getting the letter and be able to see your face.

Ignotus Notus

P.S. My favorite meal is dinner and I will never say no to a plate of steak.

Hermione was walking down the corridor to lunch. She had been in the library thinking about Ignotus Notus, her detention with Snape and the first few days of school. The year, so far, had not exactly going the way she would have assumed.

While in the library there was nothing but idle gossip, which was what had actually chased her out. Some was about her bit with Snape. Hannah and Ernie were on the rocks. Lavender's cheerleading team came together and fell apart in the first practice when she showed up with a routine that broke sixteen bones altogether. Pamela, one of the Ravenclaw seventh years, had been caught on her way back to the common room by Filch with her hair and clothes a wreck.

Hermione shook her head as she thought of what boy was worth sneaking off in the middle of the night to shag. It was so tacky and she was stuck cleaning the mess left by Fluffy before he was moved to another part of the corridor for the rest of the month. Her detention that night, though, would probably make her beg to wonder what she was shoveling and scrubbing for a month.

As she turned down the corner, Hermione heard a loud commotion. She ran down the stairs, following the sound until she found herself outside the dungeons. Looking down a flight of steps, Hermione saw down the hall that a cauldron of something had fallen and slipped all over a student.

A loud cackle roared down the corridor and Hermione knew who was responsible.

"PEEVES!" She called out, but Peeves did not reply or show himself. She ran down the stairs and the corridor to the student lying on the cold, stone floor, covered in a red, gooey substance. "Are you okay?"

"Don't touch me, mudblood," a dark voice hissed at her. She recognized the voice as Theodore Nott's.

"Shut up Nott and let me help you to the Infirmary." Hermione tried to help Nott up, but he resisted before collapsing.

Hermione levitated his unconscious body, still covered in the potion leaving him nearly unrecognizable, and took him to Madame Pomphrey. Before she got there, an owl dropped a letter beside her, which she quickly put in her pocket before continuing on to the Infirmary.

"Oh my, what happened here?" Madame Pomphrey asked as Hermione placed Theo on the closest available bed.

"Peeves and a potion," Hermione tried to explain.

"What kind of potion?" the nurse asked suspiciously, knowing of the hatred between the two houses.

"Not a clue. I actually didn't see what happened, but I heard a commotion and laughter." Hermione tried to think of anything else that might be of help. "He passed out when I tried to help him up here. Actually he was resisting."

"Anything else?" Hermione shook her head. "Then shoo. I must find out what has happened to the dear boy."

Hermione left the room, trying not to laugh at the 'dear boy' comment. She remembered the letter and took it out of her pocket to read on her way to the Great Hall.

Ignotus Notus liked DADA, dinner and steak. He did not know what he wanted to be when he grew up, and had just written the sweetest letter yet. Hermione rushed to the Great Hall to tell Harry and to ask him whether he had gotten another letter from his pen pal yet.

Dear Ignotus Notus,

Yes, I did hear about what happened to Hermione and Snape and I think that it is about time he got what he had coming to him. After all those years of being such a pain in the arse (A/N do they _say_ 'arse' because that's how it's spelled in England, or just pronounced? Oh well, this is how the spell it until someone corrects me and wins a date with Tad Hamilton) to anyone that isn't in Slytherin, I think that detention is more than generous on his part. I only feel bad for poor Hermion who has to spend a month having detentions with Snape _and_ Draco Malfoy.

Off the topic, though, my favorite meal isn't quite a meal, but a type of food. No one can keep me away from slumber party food. Anything raw (that you're supposed to bake, like cookies or brownies), covered with cheese or chocolate, sugary sweets, anything like that you could never take away from me. If I had to choose one food, though, that I love the most it is actually day old moo shoo (A/N id that how it's spelled? That's how it's spelled in a take-out menu, but my friends say that that's wrong). I know it sounds gross, but it tastes so good. I love if fresh too, but it's the same with pizza. For some reason if it's been out for even an hour I'll eat it quicker and be able to get more in my stomach.

Okay, I'm ending that part of my letter now before you begin to think that I'm some disgusting freak who eats old food that's probably gone bad. When I was little, I used to stay up late at night to wait for Santa Clause, even in September (which is when my birthday is). Christmas was always my favorite holiday, even over Halloween when people give out free candy for dressing up silly. What's your's?

Émeraude Amour


	12. The Switch

Chapter Eleven: The Switch

"Oh shut up M-Malfoy," Theodore groaned, looking away from his chuckling friend.

Draco and Blaise were standing over Theodore's bed in the Infirmary. They were laughing at their friend's condition. Apparently word had gotten around that pureblood Theodore Nott had been saved from Peeves the poltergeist by mudblood Hermione Granger and Draco and Blaise weren't going to miss the opportunity to be the first people to mock their friend.

"Oh come on Nott," Blaise managed to get out without laughing, "if it was one of us you would be taking pictures and selling tickets or something."

"Whatever," Theo said as he tried to roll over.

"So how long do you think you're going to be out of class?"

"Pomphrey wants me for at least a few weeks." Theo winced. "The old bag wants to keep an eye on me."

"Hm, well I wonder why," Draco said with a smirk. He looked at Theo covered in bandages with a healing gash on his forehead. The potion had made it more difficult for it to be healed.

"Maybe it's because if he wandered the halls someone would think that someone had let the boggart from third year back into the castle," Blaise added sarcastically.

"Just shut up and get out of here. Pomphrey will be back in a few minutes to send me back to sleep."

Blaise and Draco took one last look at their friend, but nodded. They knew of the nurse's wrath and found out the hard way. Neither of them were quite ready to have to face it again.

"Malfoy, hold on a second," Theo called when Draco and Blaise were halfway to the door. "I need you to do me a favor," he told Draco when he was back beside the bed. He sounded weak, much weaker than a minute ago. "Listen, I can barely sit up, let alone keep my eyes open, meaning that I can't even write a letter."

Draco knew what Theo was about to ask of him. He groaned and rubbed his temple. "Theo-"

"No, Malfoy. Please just do this for me."

"Why? Why is this so important?"

"I told you be-"

"Cut the crap," Draco interrupted. "I know what you said before, and you may have begun this all as a prank to break some girl's heart, but there has to be something that makes it more important if you're asking me to help."

Theo sighed and looked out the window. "She seems cute."

"_What_?"

"She seems intelligent, interesting, different. There's something about her that just makes me want to meet her." He looked over at Draco. "Just pretend to be me for a while. Please?"

"This is so messed up."

Dear Émeraude Amour,

If you want more news, have you heard what happened to Theodore Nott? Peeves dropped a cauldron on him and _Hermione Granger_ had to take him to the Infirmary. I think it's horrible what happened to him,

"No, that's horrible."

Dear Émeraude Amour,

My favorite holiday is Halloween. I enjoy any chance I get to dress up and scare little kids.

"Hell. No."

Dear Émeraude Amour,

Adding some more gossip to our letters, have you heard what happened to Theodore Nott? Peeves dropped a cauldron on him and Hermione Granger had to take him to the Infirmary. I think it's horrible what happened to him, though he can be a bit of an arse.

Moving on, I am quite partial to a holiday that isn't quite official yet, the first day of summer vacation. I enjoy school, but sometimes it's just easier to go home where it's easier to get away.


	13. Who Is She?

Chapter Twelve: Who Is She?

Dear Émeraude Amour,

Adding some more gossip to our letters, have you heard what happened to Theodore Nott? Peeves dropped a cauldron on him and Hermione Granger had to take him to the Infirmary. I think it's horrible what happened to him, though he can be a bit of an arse.

Moving on, I am quite partial to a holiday that isn't quite official yet, the first day of summer vacation. I enjoy school, but sometimes it's just easier to go home where it's easier to get away. I like to spend my summer vacations doing what I can't do in school, and that doesn't only involve getting wasted and laid, because I can just do that here. Just kidding. I like to go swimming or running, but if you do anything here that's different that what you usually do then you can get attacked.

That is something that always bothered me about the whole wizard thing. We go to these boarding schools and most of the time we have to be very careful with friends who are muggles, if we even have any. With the students not from the muggle world it's sometimes hard to make many friends, especially with the lack of magical communities. If your parents don't have many people over then it's hard to meet anyone, and if that is the case then there isn't much of a choice in friends if you don't want to be alone.

In this school, also, there's only a certain amount of people to be friends with and with maybe thirty people, tops, in each year and the prejudice from some houses it doesn't leave too much room to be friends with everyone you would like to, or not be friends with those you don't want to be with.

I must be going now as my friends are coming back to the dorms.

Good night,

Ignotus Notus

Hermione hugged her letter behind the curtains. She read the letter over again. He really opened up in this letter and it was amazing, even if it wasn't on purpose.

She had been waiting until a good time to see how Nott was doing, as she was the one who found him, and as she was about to leave the tower, the letter fell onto her bed from an owl's beak.

What was she going to write now? He hadn't left a new topic so she was going to have to think of something to branch off from his letter. Should she write about what she did this summer? She couldn't be sympathetic; otherwise it would sound like pity. That was when she shot up and grabbed a quill and piece of parchment, wrote a quick, but full-page, letter and raced to tie her letter to the leg of the owl who delivered her letter from Ignotus Notus.

Hermione put on her cloak and made her way down to the infirmary. She looked through the doorway and saw a sleeping Theodore Nott on a bed in the middle of the room. There were a few letters on his nightstand from his parents and friends most likely. Hermione walked up to the bed and placed a card she conjured for Theo on the nightstand and sat on the chair beside him, unsure of what to do next.

She was about to get up and leave when she heard a soft moan come from the bed. She turned around and saw Theodore trying to sit up in the bed.

"Oh Nott," Hermione exclaimed softly, aware that he was in pain. She rushed down and pressed lightly on his chest and laid him back onto the sole pillow on the bed. "Lie down. You'll get hurt."

"Take your mudblood hands off of me," Theo demanded as harshly as he could in his condition, but Hermione didn't move. Instead, she poured him a cup of water from the pitcher on his nightstand. Theo rolled his eyes and sighed, deciding to give in as long as she was doing stuff for him. "Thank you for before."

Hermione was caught completely of guard. She turned to face him once more and held up the glass for him to drink from. "Take slow sips," she told him. "You're welcome," she said as she placed the glass back on the nightstand after he took a few sips.

There was an awkward silence that filled the room for another few minutes. "What was the potion Peeves poured on you?" Hermione finally asked.

Theodore tried to shrug, but winced at the pain of just trying to move his shoulders. "They won't tell me."

"Theo, I go-Granger?"

Hermione whipped around to Draco Malfoy walking into the room with a piece of parchment in his hand.

"Oh, hello Malfoy," Hermione said. She straightened out her outfit and said, "I was just leaving." She turned and said to Theo, "I'll see if I can find out for you," and left.

Draco made sure that Hermione was gone before flipping around and looking in amazement at Theo. Theodore Nott. The friend of his who gave him chills at times.

"What was the mudblood doing here?" Draco demanded.

Theo tried to shrug once more, but found it to be even more painful than the first. "She wanted to see if I was okay. Got me water. Now she's finding out what potion the damned poltergeist poured on me."

Draco shook his head. "And here I thought you wanted a chance to find out where Blaise's point really went," he joked. "Here's the letter from Émeraude Amour, sexy name by the way, _Ignotus Notus_."

"What did you end up writing to her?" Theo asked.

"Just stuff," Draco said with a shrug. He actually couldn't believe what he had written. It was like he was writing to an old friend. He had read Theo's letters from Émeraude Amour for inspiration and couldn't believe a girl like that was at his school. "She wrote asking about summer vacation," he lied.

"Really?" Theo asked. "Can you read the letter to us?"

"It's really short," Draco said.

"Dra-"

"Fine. 'Dear Ignotus Notus, What is your favorite time of the year? Mine is summer vacation. I usually end up spending the whole two months with my friends from home and school. What do you do? Must be going. Émeraude Amour.'"

Theo tried to nod, but let out a moan in pain. "Write to her about-"

"Mister Malfoy," a screech came from behind them. "What are you doing? Get away from that student this instant! He needs his rest."

"Sorry madame Pomphrey," Draco said. "I was only reading him a letter from his mother. I'll just come back when he is feeling better to finish it." He stood up and walked out of the infirmary more excited than he had been twenty minutes ago when he received the letter from Émeraude Amour, which was a whole page, not just the pathetic paragraph he just made up. If Theo knew he wrote what he did then he would have had his head.

Draco raced up to the library to get some privacy while he wrote a letter to Émeraude Amour. He took a seat all the way in the back and read the letter once more.

'Dear Ignotus Notus,

Yes, in fact I saw Hermione Granger taking Nott to the Infirmary. I wonder what happened to him. I hope Peeves didn't do too much damage though.

Onto friends, though, I have noticed, as well, that it is hard to make friends in the wizarding world. Sometimes I will go to the muggle world and meet interesting people. I won't say if I live among muggles or magical folk, but I spend a lot of time on both sides. It makes the whole summer-school transition much greater, though. I move from magic all around me to times when I must pretend that it doesn't exist. It's okay though. I'm the same person in both worlds when my friends are involved. We have a lot of fun no matter what we're doing, but it's much easier to break a rule in school most times. I agree with the 'if you do anything different you get attacked' part of your letter, though. When I was at the seventh-year slumber party, some of the people who I spoke to were surprised about how I spent my summer vacations. I didn't get attacked, but a few jokes were thrown out. Yes, that just narrowed down who I am by a lot, but maybe you will still have trouble. We may not have spoken that night if you were there. I hope we did, especially after your last letter. It was very insightful and honest, which I really respect in a person. I hope you're not just a bull-shit artist. Just kidding.

I have had some trouble making friends, though, in this school because of what you said. Blood, houses, classes, everything is magnified more than I had hoped when I first came here and to be honest, it really isn't so great. I am glad Dumbledore began this project to break down boarders. Maybe someday we can find out just how many boarders we broke and meet in person…but when we're both ready. I must be off now, though.

Farewell,

Émeraude Amour'

She was impressed by him. A smile found it's way to his lips and, for once, he didn't wipe it away. And she was at the slumber party. Who could she have been? Draco took out a scrap piece of parchment and scribbled the names of everyone who was at the party.

Weaslette

Patil 1

Patil 2

Brown

Parkinson

Abbot

Bones

Brocklehurst

Turpin

Perks

Millicent

And, who was it? There was someone missing? Oh yes. Granger. After that party he would _never_ be surprised by her again. It couldn't be her, though. Granger is too proper to swear in a letter. No, it couldn't be her. Nothing pointed to her. Well, at least now he was closer to figuring this girl out.

'Maybe I should leave this to be more of a surprise,' Draco thought to himself. 'Otherwise the letter won't have the allure it does.'

'Dear Émeraude Amour,

Yes, I was at the party and I must say that Hermione granger and Pansy Parkinson know how to throw a party. Granger plans the whole thing and Parkinson keeps her quiet when she tried to make speeches. Haha (nice laugh, not mean). I was quite surprised by Hermione, though. I can't believe that she did those truths and dares. I will never mock her for not having guts, that's for sure. To be honest, I'm very impressed, not that I was never impressed by her. I am ashamed to say that I judged her in the beginning of school, but she has truly proved herself time after time. Okay, I'm stopping now just in case you are Granger, in which case I will be very embarrassed. Maybe I should say something about all of the girls at the party. Nah, lunch is starting soon and I was thinking of going for a stroll around the lake before it became too crowded, as it is such a lovely day out and I want to get this letter out before I leave. Maybe I'll see your smiling face as you get your letter.

I saw, though, that at the party there was so much that bonded everyone there. Maybe we can have another one, only this one for everyone who kept up with their pen pals and we can all meet, if we haven't already. I know of some people in my house who met their pen pals. Oh well, it was a good idea in my head. How about a Halloween ball? With masks. We can even make it go later on for the seventh years and have another slumber party. Y'know, I think Granger got me hooked on parties that don't involve…not-so school appropriate activities, haha.

Back home my friends and I do a lot of that stuff. It's okay at times, but once in a while it gets old, boring, and just makes me want to do my homework so something different will happen. I would never tell my friends this, though. They would never let me live any of it down. Image is pretty important with my…associates.'

"Malfoy?"

Draco jumped and looked up at Hermione Granger. The girl he had been praising in writing only moments ago.

"Granger, I should have expected to see you in the library," he said.

Hermione collected herself, trying not to say anything rude or offensive that might start a fight. "I was just surprised to see you I all. Don't let me disturb you."

Draco didn't know what to say. First she was with Theo, now she was trying to be civil with him. What was with this girl? He watched as she stretched to reach a book from the 'Muggle Literature' section on a sixth shelf that was obviously out of her reach. She jumped up and her fingers skimmed the spine, but that was as close as she could get.

"You do know that you're a witch, right?" Draco said sarcastically before he could stop the words from escaping his lips.

Hermione put her hands on her hips and looked up at the book. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and turned around to grad a chair from the table Draco was at with a smile. "There's a spell," she grunted, "on the books, to make sure that the students can't destroy them." She climbed onto the chair and took the book with a proud smile on her face and jumped down. She pushed the chair back to the table and walked away to read her book.

Draco sighed. If Theo could be civil with her than so could he, for now. "You've already stood on the chair, how about you try sitting?"

Hermione turned around and looked at him. She was confused, and hesitant, but she walked over and sat in the seat across from him and opened the book.

"What are you reading?" Draco asked. It had been a few minutes, but he hadn't been able to write another word. Little did he know that Hermione was having the same problem with her reading.

"Oh, er, 'Franny and Zooey,'" she said, looking at the cover. "It's by an author I've been wanting to get into for a while."

"Then you should read 'Catcher in the Rye,'" he blurted out. Hermione's eyes shot open. "I mean, it's okay. I skimmed through it when I was bored once."

"Would you say that it's your favorite book?" Hermione asked, trying to sound casual.

"No," Draco lied. "I would never have a muggle book as a favorite." He couldn't let her know that he read muggle literature. Only Nott and Zabini knew that and that was only because they found his collection in his room when they were younger.

Hermione rolled her eyes and stood up. "Excuse me, Malfoy," she said coldly, "but I must be getting to lunch."

Draco tried to shrug her off and continued his letter.

I am SOSOSOSOSOSO sorry that it took me so long to update. I promise that I will try to keep updates coming quicker. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	14. Chapter Fourteen

OMG I just realized that I started out the story with them in the sixth year and then made it seventh. Just stick to seventh year and I am so sorry. Enjoy. REVIEW.

Chapter Thirteen

"Harry, have you noticed anything…off about Hermione?" Neville asked Harry, taking a seat across from him at dinner.

"Yes," Dean agreed, "she's been, er, chipper."

"And she keeps blushing every time I try to talk to her," Seamus said. "Watch. Hey Hermione."

Hermione looked up from her books and blushed before taking a seat between Dean and Neville.

"Er, Hermione," Ron said slowly, "are you okay?"

Hermione nodded her head quickly.

"Did you just find out that you got all the extra credits in McGonagall's class?" Neville asked.

She shook her head.

"Did you find out that Head Girl automatically gets straight O's? (is that the highest mark?)" Seamus asked.

She shook her head.

"Is it a boy?"

Everyone turned around/looked up at Ginny then back at Hermione.

"It's either her pen pal or classmate," Ginny said, knowing the answer from Hermione's silence. "Good luck figuring it out." And with that she walked away.

Hermione swallowed the rest of her sandwich and stood up. "I think I'm going to go to the library," she said. "I'll see you all later."

"She's not going to the library guys," Neville whispered as soon as Hermione was out of earshot. "She was with Theodore Nott earlier today. He must be the bloke."

"What?"

"When?"

"You must be mistaken."

"_Nott_?"

"Yes. I was there having my arm healed and I saw them being _civil_ with each other," Neville said. "I thought she was just trying to be nice, especially since she was the one who found him, but now we know why."

Neville was right. Hermione _was _going to see Nott, and she continued to for the next few weeks, and soon enough he wasn't pretending to be nice to her. He was actually enjoying her company, but he didn't quite know why. In the beginning he behaved like 'Ignotus Notus,' but soon enough, when he was about to speak and move more with less pain, which was still quite a bit, they would have conversations.

It began where she would sit by his side; sometimes read him a book if he asked, usually something on his nightstand, but sometimes a book Hermione would get from the library. Other times he would wonder what was being taught in DADA. That was something they had in common, Hermione learned. They both loved that class. The visits were short, maybe only fifteen minutes at a time, and were never too personal.

The Gryffindor boys, however, were not having as good of a time as Hermione was. They tried to keep Hermione away from Nott, but she would always find a way to see him to see if he was feeling better. She still hadn't found out what the potion was, but hadn't given up.

Hermione and Draco continued to write and Draco continued to lie to Nott about what he would write, especially the letter that spoke so much about Hermione. He nearly tried to get the letter back after sending it off, but she replied telling him about Draco Malfoy and how he seemed different than last year. The letters were getting to be more like IMs, especially since since they spoke about muggle conveniences and the computer (for an example), they both worked for three days and came up with a parchment and a quill that worked like instant messaging. Hermione made the parchment so that they would each have one and whatever they wrote on them would show up on the other's. Draco came up with the quill, making it work similar, but it didn't matter what they wrote on, as long as they used the quill. They laughed when they received the other person's 'invention' on the same day. They only used them during class and once in a while during free time, but there was a spell on both objects so that only they and invited people could see what they wrote to each other.

Hermione told Ginny about Ignotus Notus, but only details she was ready to share, like that hey were still writing and some information from the earlier letters, but Ginny was sworn to secrecy, especially after finding the letter Draco wrote that day in the library, not that either of them knew that detail.

What Hermione did know, though, was that Draco was always either in the library, the infirmary, the Great Hall or class. He was always in the library when she came then left to see Nott and would always show up with whatever he was working on when he came to visit right as she was leaving. He would also come back to the library not long after she got there.

The library was the only place Hermione felt that she could avoid the Gryffindor boys. It was one thing when Harry and Ron tried to keep her occupied, which she knew was what they were doing, but now it was five boys.

"Is this seat taken?"

Hermione looked up. She had just been thinking about Nott, Ignotus Notus, Draco and the Gryffindor boys and their recent bahavior while trying to read a school book when the third party of her thoughts walked up to the table she was at.

She shook her head. "No," she said, moving her books away from the seat across from her.

He sat down and took a book out of his bag. "Here," he said, putting the nook on the table, "I thought you might want to read it." It was 'Catcher in the Rye'! "The school's version's been missing since third year."

Hermione picked up the book and look at it. "Thank you Draco," she sighed. She excitedly opened it up and began to scan the pages to see if it was real. "I've been looking all over for a copy."

Draco shrugged. "Well, I had it in my trunk and I thought that, well, since you were reading Fra-"

"Thank you."

"I noticed that you've been seeing Nott in the infirmary," Draco said, trying to think of something to say.

"Yes," Hermione replied. "I just want to make sure he's okay."

"Oh, is he your pen pal or something?" Draco asked, knowing the answer was going to be 'no.'

"Er, I don't know," Hermione said. "I don't think so. Otherwise I wouldn't have received any letters from him. Nott can barely speak, let alone write. He would need someone to do it for him."

Draco nodded his head slowly. "Yeah. He's not much of a pen pal person, so I wouldn't even assume that he continued his letters," he said, trying to throw Hermione off his trail.

"Well that's a shame," she said. "He doesn't seem like such a bad guy."

Draco chuckled. "You obviously don't know Theodore Nott."

"Well it's not like you're 'student of the year.'"

"I'm Head Boy. That should count for something."

"Good grades."

Draco smirked. "Y'know, you're not all that bad either Granger." He stood up. "Nice talking to you."

Dear Émeraude Amour

A lot of girls have a bit of a tongue on them. I respect that more than most guys our age would. Lately I've been getting into battles of the tongue, and not just in the sexual manner. It's not too common in girls in this school, though. Girls have it, but don't use it. Take Parkinson, for instance. She's dumb as a stick, but when it's time for the insults they just flow out of her mouth. Does that even mean that she's dumb as a stick, or that she has brains but doesn't use them? There are some girls here who don't have a brain or a tongue and just get by here. How are they even accepted? No, how do they even get past first year? Is it just me, or have standards just gotten lower and lower since we were eleven? Wow, listen to me. I'm a grandpa. Must be off now. Why is it that I always am in the middle of a letter to you when meals begin? Maybe I should just miss the meal and get some food from the kitchens. The house elves there will give you anything if you just ask. Perhaps that's where the food from the slumber party was. Speaking of parties, on a final note, I have decided to not wait for someone and plan a Halloween party for just the seventh years, or more so a trip to a club. You'll get the details soon enough, though. Just look up tomorrow morning.

Ignotus Notus


	15. Chapter 15

Sorry it took me so long, I've been very busy. Enjoy! REVIEW FOR WHAT YOU WANT DRACO TO DRESS AS! (Hermione's brilliant costume is already prepared, ;-))

Chapter Fourteen

Hermione woke up the next morning and looked up as soon as she realized it was morning without noticing the mask on her face. She didn't notice it until she tried to rub her eyes and felt the glitter scratch against her hand. She looked in her mirror and saw that she was wearing a mask covered completely in black glitter with a few rhinestones, but she also saw writing!

'Seventh year, you have been invited to an all-seventh year Halloween to remember. Be in the Room of Requirement fifteen minutes after curfew in costume. Wear the mask. Tell no one.'

Hermione took off the mask and the writing disappeared. She put the mask back on and there it was again. There was obviously a spell on the mask. She placed it gently on her nightstand and got ready for the day. It was two weeks before Halloween, so she needed to begin thinking about what she wanted to dress as.

"Hermione, those masks were brilliant," Harry said as he saw her walk down the stairs.

"I'm glad you liked them Harry," Hermione said, "but they weren't mine. I woke up with one too."

"I wonder whose idea it was," Harry thought out loud.

"Well are we going or not?" Dean asked. Hermione had learned that Dean was the more sensitive of the Gryffindor boys. He was the easiest to talk to and see through and Hermione wanted nothing more than to find him a nice girl she knew back home.

"Of course," Seamus exclaimed. He was more of the rugged, outdoorsy member of her school family. He went camping every summer with his dad and one of his friends, usually Dean, and sometimes worked at his dad's camping- supply store.

"I'm not so sure," Neville said over his book on the couch. "We don't know who sent the masks. What if we're being set up? The whole thing is a bit sketchy." Neville was a bit more cautious than the other Gryffindors and had a good head on his shoulders, though no one ever saw the true extent of his intellect. He was a very sensitive soul with a big, strong heart.

Hermione walked over and sat beside Neville. "Neville, I promise that nothing will happen, and if this _is_ a set up then I swear that we will have a _very_ fun revenge on November first."

Neville smiled and closed his book. "But what will I wear?" he joked in a high-pitched voice.

"Someone is-is ha-ving a sev-nth year night again?" Theodore groaned to Hermione.

"Yes," she replied. It had actually slipped out about the party. She originally didn't want to tell him because it was completely obvious that he wouldn't have been able to even leave his bed by then.

"Take so-some pic-trs for me," he told her before leaning back to close his eyes. "Costumes?" Hermione nodded. "What do you have in mind?"

Hermione shrugged. "I was thinking of something to match my mask." She pulled out the small, black mask from her bag and showed it to Theo.

"Nice," he said before falling asleep suddenly.

This had happened twice before, but Hermione didn't leave him or tell Madame Pomphrey. Instead, she took his hand in hers and sighed. This was not the Theodore Nott she brought to the infirmary those weeks ago. She could tell that he was a heartless jerk who was thought that he was completely fooling her in the beginning. It was like the ice around his heart was melting.

"It's like you broke him in."

Hermione turned around and tried not to blush. It was Draco standing a few feet behind her, almost reading her mind. "Hello Malfoy."

Despite his always ending up in the same place as her, Hermione never spoke much to Malfoy.

"He's not a dog, just-"

"Please don't say misunderstood," Draco chuckled. He pulled over a seat from beside the next bed and put is a foot away from Hermione's. "You get a mask too?" Hermione nodded her head and looked at Tom. "Do you think you're going to go?"

Hermione thought for a moment. "The Gryffindors and I all think it's a great idea, but we don't know who sent us the masks, or if it's a trick or not," even though she suspected Ignotus Notus

"It's not a trick," Draco said. "I found out who sent them, but he swore me to secrecy."

Hermione looked at him. "Who was it?" Draco pretended to zip up his lips, making Hermione giggle. "Well do you at least know what you're going to dress up as?" This time Draco pretended to lock his zipped lips and throw away the key. "You're so immature," Hermione told him playfully.

"Enough about the party," Draco said with a smile. "That's not for weeks. How did you like the book?"

Hermione was shocked that he was behaving this way. They hadn't spoken this friendly since the day in the library.

"I loved it," she told him. "I hope your don't mind that I've had it for this long, I just keep forgetting it on my nightstand."

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I have books that I've borrowed from people for years, I've loved them so much. In fact, if you liked 'Catcher in the Rye' so much, I have a few books you might also find interesting. Have you ever heard of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?"

"I read it in the fifth grade, it was amazing," she replied.

Draco thought for a moment. "'Of Mice and Men'?"

"Third," she blushed. "How about 'The Great Gatsby'?"

"Second year." Draco chuckled. "We're a two-person library."

Hermione let out a small laugh when she heard a flutter of wings and looked up. Hovering above their heads was a small owl with a letter in its beak. Before either of them could get a good look, it dropped the letter in Hermione's lap and flew off.

"My pen pal probably," she said.

Draco leaned back in his seat. "Oh, you're still writing?"

Hermione nodded her head. "I don't think it was too bad of an idea. It's a great way to bond with people we never considered even looking twice at."

Draco nodded his head, wishing he knew who Émeraude Amour was.

"Hermione?"

Hermione flipped around, almost falling out of her chair, and saw Neville begin supported by Dean and Ron in the doorway. "Oh my," she exclaimed. "What happened to him?" She rushed over to help bring Neville to a bed, taking Dean's place so he could rest his sore shoulder.

"We were trying to teach him how to fly and he fall off the broom and hit his head on a tree," Ron explained.

"But not before knocking me to the ground," Dean added, rubbing his shoulder. It was then that they remembered that Malfoy and Nott were in the room.

"What are you doing with _them_?" Ron hissed.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm here to check up on Nott. Malfoy just happened to stop by." She felt bad about dismissing Draco and Nott so easily, but she couldn't have Ron or Dean start a scene.

"Well let's go get Pomphrey," Ron said, taking Hermione by the arm. He took her to the office door and looked her in the eye. "Hermione, what is going on here?"

"What do you mean?"

"First you go ballistic on Snape, then you start spending your time with _Slytherins_. Is there something going on that you're not telling us?" Ron looked her in the eyes and she saw the pain she was causing her friends.

She sighed and said, "I'm sorry Ron, I guess I was just so eager to see the Slytherins to change that I was blinded and didn't see how much I was leaving all of my friends out. Why don't we all sneak out on Saturday and have a Gryffindor day?"

Ron smiled. "Sure," he said. "We can look for costumes as well. I'm sure the costume store in Hogsmead will have exactly what we're looking for."

Hermione nodded and gave Ron a hug before sprinting to the library to read her letter.

"What is this?"

Hermione looked around the bookshelf and saw Hannah and Ernie at her usual table. Ernie, looking furious, was holding up several pieces of parchment with green writing on them. Hannah, looking like she might explode at any moment, had her hands on her hips and was looking him right in the eye.

"They're letters!" she exclaimed. "Sorry if I didn't abandon the whole pen pal thing before even reading my first letter!"

"Well if you're having such a great time then why not let me in on it?" Ernie demanded.

"Because I knew you wouldn't understand!"

"What's going on?"

Hermione whipped around and saw Harry standing behind her.

"Ernie is upset with Hannah," Hermione whispered back. "He's saying something about the pen pal letters."

Harry looked up and gulped.

"And why the bloody hell wouldn't I understand?" They heard Ernie bellow from behind the books.

Hannah rolled her eyes and tried to grab the letters from Ernie's hand, but he pulled them away and out of her reach. "Give me the damned letters back Ernie," she said in a threatening tone. "You had no right going through my personal belongings."

"My girlfriend is acting peculiar and while I am leafing through her books for something to read while I wait for her because she's in the library and doesn't want to be disturbed I find a box of love letters, I have no right?" he yelled. "And what does he mean when he signs the letters 'your dear friend'?"

"That he's a damn dear friend!"

"So dear that you don't even tell me about _him_?"

"So what if he's a 'he'?" Hannah shouted. "I have plenty of male friends in the school!"

"Let's leave before they catch us," Hermione whispered to Harry, who nodded and led her out to one of the towers. "Wow," she said when they closed the door. "Can you believe that?"

Harry mumbled something and bit his nail.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked. Then it hit her. "You're Hannah's pen pal!"

Harry slapped his hand over her mouth and looked around to make sure that no one was coming up the stairs. "I didn't know when it began, but now…"

Hermione sighed. "At least you know who your pen pal is. What do you think you're going to do?"

Harry shrugged. "What _can_ I do? I know that Ginny and I are long since over, but Hannah and Ernie are still together."

"Does she know it's you that she's writing to?"

"Not exactly. Here's what happened."

"Did she leave?"

Draco looked down from the window at his friend. Neville was asleep on the other side of the room and Dean was gone, finally. "She left with Weasley. Why?"

"She's not as bad as I th-thought she would be," Theo grunted. "I-I thought it would be hell, but she's sm-mart."

"Top grades in our class."

"When am I going to leave here?"

"Pomphrey's report says that if you don't get better soon, she's going to send you off to Mungo's."

"H-Hermione's nice," Theo sighed as he drifted back off to sleep. Draco nodded his head. "And funny." Draco smirked. "And smitten." Draco froze and Theo was unconscious again.


	16. Hard Flips

Chapter Fifteen

Harry was practicing tricks on his skateboard while Hermione chewed on the eraser of her pencil and Ron played with his drumsticks Hermione bought him. Dean and Seamus were playing one-on-one football (soccer) a few yards away and Neville was drawing a picture of the Whomping Willow. It was a calm afternoon three days after Ron dragged Hermione out of the Infirmary and she found out that Hannah was Harry's pen pal. Now she was watching her friend as she let her mind wander away from her assignment and back to Ignotus Notus. Who was he?

"So what's the deal with costumes?" Ron asked out of nowhere.

Everyone looked over at him. "I guess we can go over to Hogsmead this weekend and find something," Harry suggested. "That's probably what most of the other seventh years are doing."

"How much time do we have?" Dean asked.

"Ten days," Hermione replied almost instantly.

Everyone looked at her, a bit surprised that she knew it so quickly.

"Is someone counting down the days?" Seamus taunted. All the boys made noises and faces at her with a little chuckle.

"Can I help it if I'm looking forward to this Halloween surprise?"

"Now when it's you," Ron joked.

Harry seemed to be lost in his skateboarding and, until then, had been attempting to do a hard flip. He fell down hard, though, with a loud 'oomph,' turning everyone's attention away from Hermione.

'**Have you ever noticed that friends don't talk to one another when they're together as much as they do when speaking with an acquaintance?**'

Hermione looked at her paper and giggled. She and Ignotus Notus sometimes would write random comments to each other when they were bored and they would turn into long conversations. While the rest of the boys were going back to their previous activities, she pulled out the purple quill Ignotus Notus sent her, after finding out that her favorite color was purple, and scribbled beneath his writing: '_Have you ever noticed that best friends laugh when you fall, but an acquaintance will be the first to help you up?_' in purple ink.

'**Have you ever noticed that when shopping, a best friend will tell you the worst things, and be an ass about it, but an acquaintance will try to sugarcoat it?**'

'_Muggles have a saying, if you get arrested, a friend will loan you the bail money, a best friend will be laughing their ass off, and a best friend will be right there beside you behind bars._'

'**Well that is an interesting saying. Muggles sure come up with peculiar ways to show friendship.**'

'_At least you don't have to worry about being hexed if you piss them off._'

Draco laughed from behind the bookshelves in he library. He was sitting at the table where he and Hermione had spoken about "Catcher in the Rye."

He brought his quill to his chin and thought for a moment before writing, "**And here I thought muggle high-school-girl drama was worse than any hex**" onto the silver-great paper Émeraude Amour sent him. When he tapped it with his quill, though, it looked like plain parchment.

'_No arguments there. Though I must admit that at least they don't rely on magic to sure everything…like a zit._'

"**Two words. Make. Up.**"

He enjoyed these fun conversations with Émeraude Amour. It was hard to write, though, because he had to make sure that no one knew what he was doing, especially Blaise, who thought he hadn't taken up Nott's offer, and anyone who would tell Nott. Thinking of, he was supposed to meet Nott to see if he was up for a game of chess. Dumbledore insisted on Nott being surrounded by friends to help keep up his morale.

"_Two words. Cheap. Shot._"

Draco chuckled and tucked the paper away and took out his green quill he made for himself so he could write on his book as he walked.

"**Why is it so hard to write and walk at the same time?**"

"_Why do people write while they walk when they know it's hard?_"

"**Why do we always have places to go and people to see?**"

"_Why does no one ever know how to say good-bye like a normal person anymore without stalling?_"

"**Why do people always see through avoidance?**"

"_Why do people avoid?_"

"**Why does anyone do anything?**"

"_To postpone boredom_"

"_But if you're too busy procrastinating to end this little conversation, then I must because you are not the only one with places to go and people to see. Good bye._"

"**Ciao.**"

Hermione shut her book and stretched. "I think I'm going to go work on that essay for Professor McGonagall," she said.

"Mind if I join you Hermione?" Dean asked.

They boys had been keeping her on a short leash for the past few days, especially Ron and Dean, who had seen her sitting with Draco at Nott's bed.

"Sure. Maybe we can even do the extra extra credit assignment," she said excitedly. "I've already finished most of my essay and have the first extra credit assignment done with."

"Oh I just remembered, I finished it last night. You go have fun."

Hermione smiled and walked back into the castle. It had taken her all night to think up that excuse to walk around without any babysitters. She took a few lefts and rights and ended up in the library.

Part of her was hoping that Draco was there so she could talk to him, maybe even something other than books, but he wasn't there. Maybe he was in the infirmary.

The halls were filled with students who were already excited about Halloween. The first years, especially, were looking forward to the festivities, as many of them had never seen a real bat before and a show had been promised by a man from Transylvania during dessert. Some of the third-years were even planning on going to class in costume.

When Hermione finally got past the crowds, she was stopped by Professor Gordon.

"Hermione, my dear, I was hoping to find you," he exclaimed.

"Hello professor Gordon," she replied with a polite smile.

"Well first I was wondering how you thought my little pen pal program was going."

"Splendid," she said. "Many people, I've heard, are still writing."

"And how about you?"

"A little curious. How were the partners assigned?"

Professor Gordon tapped his temple and smiled. "That's mine and Professor Dumbledore's little secret, or at least for a little longer. If you can figure it out, though, it might just get you a few house points, and I heard that if anyone will figure it out, you will."

"Thank you sir. What was it you needed me for?"

"Oh yes," he clapped his hands together. "I would like to have a practical exam with the fifth years, as we have finally finished reviewing, and was wondering what it was that Professor Lupin did for his final exam."

"Well, we began by going into a small maze where we had to face a few grindylow, cross a few holes with Red Caps, ignore a hinkypunk, then face a boggart," she told him.

"Well that sure sounds like fun. Maybe we should have Professor Dumbledore bring all the professors together and we can make it a competition between the houses. It could be great fun; like intramurals!"

Hermione smiled. "That sounds like fun. If you would like, I can go find the Head Boy and ask him what he thinks of it."

"Well then I won't keep you." He stepped aside for Hermione to pass by.

She turned towards the Infirmary, where she knew she would find Draco.

"You get out of here," Hermione heard Madame Pomphrey demand from a few yards away. "You keep him up for too long and he needs his rest. You can come back when I say you can."

Hermione stopped short and waited for Draco to come out. She knew Madame Pomphrey was talking about Nott, and the only person who she ever saw come to visit him was Draco and sometimes Blaise.

Sure enough, Draco came out of the room with his fists clenched at his sides.

"Draco," she called out in a soft voice. He turned to look at her and his face softened.

"Hermione."

"Er, Professor Gordon had an idea and I though that, as heads, we should discuss it," she told him.

"Well I was just kicked out of the infirmary, so I'm free."

Hermione smiled and they walked to the library in silence.

"So what was his idea?" Draco asked as he and Hermione sat down at the table by the Muggle novels.

"Huh? Oh, right. He was thinking that we could have a sort of intramural between the houses," she said. "Do you remember the exam Professor Lupin gave us at the end of the year?"

Draco smirked and rolled up his pant-leg. "See this scar?" he pointed at a crescent-shaped scar on his knee. "Never question a grindylow's directions."

"Ouch. That looks like it must have hurt."

"Like hell," he looked up at her, "but at least it wasn't a hippogriff, haha."

Hermione tried to pretend to laugh and take his comment lightly, but sat back in her chair, which she was leaning off to get a better look at the scar, and said, "that was really horrible what you did to Hagrid and Buckbeak."

Draco sighed and rolled down his pants. "Yeah, I know. I was a complete arse."

Hermione smiled. "Don't worry," she lightly punched his shoulder, "you still are."

Draco laughed with her and leaned forward. "So where did you go wrong on the exam? I heard that you had to be carried out by Potter."

Hermione looked down and blushed. "The boggart," she mumbled.

"The what?"

"The boggart. It was Professor McGonagall telling me that I had failed all of my exams."

Draco put his hand on hers. "Well then we will just have to make sure that there are no boggarts in our maze."

"And don't worry," Hermione added, "I'll make sure to keep the grindylows in line."

"Don't worry, you just have to make sure they don't have any canes."

They started to laugh, not even realizing that their hands were still together. Grindylows led to professors, which led to the houses, which led to Professor Gordon's pen pal program.

"I think it was a very good idea for inter-house relations," Hermione said.

"You definitely won't hear me complaining, it was a great idea, but a lot of people aren't even giving it a shot. I think that the people who gave up should try again with more people, not just the people with partners who gave up who don't want to."

Hermione's face lit up. "Draco that's brilliant!"

"What?"

"We should try our own thing and not leave it up to the teachers. We can even do something for Valentines Day!"

"It's October."

"So? It'll be fun!"

"Why don't we just move it up to New Year's Eve?" Draco suggested. "It's a bit closer."

"Well, as heads, we can do whatever we want."

"I knew this whole 'being head' thing would have its perks." Draco laughed.

"Well they had to show up sooner or later."

"Well how about sooner and we meet after lunch, which is in a few minutes and visit Nott?" Draco suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," she said. Hermione picked up her books and walked out of the library. "I'll see you in an hour."

Draco watched Hermione leave the room. Why wasn't he being his usual protected self with her?

He hadn't realized that he had become Ignotus Notus as the letters had gone on, but now he was looking at himself and there was nothing wrong with that. Hermione was a first step, but he was moving on. He wasn't the ass he used to be.

'_What do you think about people changing?_'


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Sixteen

Hermione had looked at every outfit in every store in Hogsmead and still couldn't find the perfect outfit.

"What about this?" she asked Ginny, holding up a Tinkerbelle costume.

Ginny's eyes flew open and she squealed for joy. "I _love_ it!" She grabbed the dress from Hermione and ran to the dressing room.

Hermione sighed. She had meant 'what about this _for me_,' but it did match Ginny's pink and green mask. She looked around the store a little more before accidentally walking into Draco Malfoy.

"Oomph, oh, sorry," she said before turning around to see who she had 'attacked'. When she saw that it was Draco, though, she was relieved that it wasn't any other Slytherin, until she realized that they weren't in the infirmary. Or the back of the library.

"Well if it isn't the co-head," he said with a light smirk, "great minds must think alike."

"What?" Hermione asked, not getting it.

Draco chuckled though and explained, "Costumes for Halloween?"

"Oh!" she laughed. "Yeah. No luck though. How about you?"

Draco shook his head. "I think I may be using my wand by October 31st."

Hermione hit her forehead. How could she have forgotten that she could make her own dress?

"Let me guess, you forgot that you were a witch?" Draco teased.

"No," Hermione said defensively, but her blush gave her away.

"You can't lie to me," he said, leaning in close to her.

Hermione tried to look away, but he started to laugh at her.

"Well I can sure try," she said, looking straight at him, trying to hide her smile.

"Hermione!" they heard from across the room. "Where did you go?"

Hermione turned around and saw Ginny looking for her from the dressing rooms.

"I'd better go to Ginny," she said, knowing that the boys would wreak havoc is they knew that Hermione was talking to Draco.

"Sure," Draco said, understanding. "Maybe we can talk later about the games, though. I have a few ideas."

Hermione nodded her head and walked back to her friend.

"Wow Ginny," she said, "you look great! I have an idea though. Why don't we just find a few costumes then conjure them up later so we can change them or something later on."

Ginny looked at herself in the mirror. There _were_ a few things she wanted to change about the costume that she wouldn't be able to do without damaging the costume. Besides, this one was a little more childish on her body than the rack. "Thanks. You just saved my life."

Hermione laughed and let Ginny change back into her regular clothes before they went out to lunch.

Draco watched Hermione and Ginny leave the store and turned back to the costume rack. He didn't even know why he was looking for something. The masks were made to turn whatever the wearer was wearing into a costume of their dreams.

He sighed and walked out of the store and down the road to a coffee shop to grab a cup where he would meet Blaise for lunch.

"Draco, where were you all morning?" Blaise asked as he took the seat across the table. "I thought you said that you were going to be at the book store."

"I ended up going to get a costume," Draco explained quickly, filling his mouth with his coffee almost instantly after.

Blaise shrugged it off and asked the waitress for a drink before turning to his menu. "So what did you end up on?"

"What?"

"Costume?"

"Oh, er, I'm just going to be a dark prince or something. The usual," Draco joked.

"Well at least you don't have to go buy a costume," Blaise replied with a laugh.

Draco rolled his eyes and gave his order to the waitress, who has returned with Blaise's drink, which Blaise imitated.

"So I heard you and Theo talking," Blaise said calmly as he took a sip of his drink.

Draco tried to look nonchalant as he leaned back in his seat.

"I heard you talking to him about a girl," Blaise continued.

"I know a lot of girls," Draco tried to tell him, knowing that Blaise was talking about Émeraude Amour.

"Girls that talk about reading books?" Blaise raised one of his eyebrows and smirked at Draco.

Draco sighed and took a bite of the food the waitress had just placed on the table. "Theo's pen pal. I've been writing to her while he's been in the Infirmary."

"And…"

"And she's the greatest thing to happen to me."

-

"Hermione, why do you keep looking over at that table?" Ginny asked Hermione, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Nothing," she replied quickly, shoving a forkful of eggs into her mouth.

Ginny turned around again and tried to figure out which table Hermione had been staring at. The only people that hadn't left or who had been there since the last time she looked were on the opposite end of the restaurant. There were two boys. She saw the back of one head, who she couldn't place, but when the other boy slouched down she saw…DRACO MALFOY?

"Hermione," Ginny hissed. "Were you looking at _Draco Malfoy_?"

Hermione blushed and swallowed the large amount of food in her mouth. "It's not what you think."

"I know," Ginny said. "He may be an arse, but he is _gorgeous_. Welcome to the club Hermione. I never thought you'd join," she finished with a laugh.

"Hello Harry!" Hermione called out with a smile and wave.

Harry waved back and walked over to their table. "Hello girls," he said with a smug smile.

"Okay, you're creeping me out," Ginny said. "I'm going to go to the loo, so just keep an eye on him, Hermione."

Hermione giggled and waited for Ginny to leave before turning back to Harry. "Please don't tell me that this is about Hannah."

Harry's smile only widened when Hermione mentioned Hannah's name.

"Oh god Harry," Hermione sighed, "what are you doing? She was happy."

"Well now she can be happier," Harry justified. "We're meeting for the first time today. She wrote that she was unhappy and wanted to meet me, face to face. She doesn't know that I know it's her, so we're going to meet at the bar and each order a strawberry milkshake with cherries."

Hermione laughed, despite the severity of the situation.

"How about you and your pen pal?" Harry asked, hoping to change the topic, or at least direction of the topic.

Hermione felt a blush come to her cheeks and shoved another forkful of food into her mouth, to which Harry laughed at.

"Are you still at least writing to him?" Harry asked.

"If you must know, yes. We are still writing, and I like it and, unless you read my letters without my knowledge, you will not know any more," she told him. "And don't look now, but Hannah is right outside. Good luck."

Harry jumped up. "How's my hair?"

"A mess. Now go!" Hermione shooed Harry away and watched him walk up and order his milkshake.

Not wanting Hannah to know she knew anything, Hermione turned back to look at Draco, who was telling his friend something. He looked like he was explaining something. When he saw her looking at him, she saw a little sparkle in his eye and twitch of his lips. She looked away just as Blaise turned around to see what Draco was smiling at.

"Back," Hermione heard a cheerful voice say from behind her. "So where did Harry go?" Ginny asked as she sat back down in the booth.

-

"Were you just looking at Granger?" Blaise asked Draco quietly.

"Why would I-"

"Cut the crap Draco," Blaise said. "I know everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Theo's been talking to her, so have you," Blaise began. "You've been writing to Theo's pen pal and then lying to him about what you've been writing about. Now you're staring at the one girl you said that you would never look twice at. Plus I know that it was you who sent the masks. Now either you tell me everything or I go over and sit with those Gryffs."

"Okay," Draco said. "Now my turn. You grow a conscience this year after getting into the fight with Potter. You get more miserable and irritable last year when he began dating Weasley. Now you're using me as an excuse to get near her. So if you will excuse me, I will be taking my plate to that table over there to speak with a pretty little redhead."

Blaise watched Draco stand up and take his plate and drink across the room, taking a seat beside Ginny Weasley.

"Shit," Blaise said under his breath. He jumped up and brought his meal to the table, sliding beside Hermione.

"Hello ladies," Draco said politely. "Do you mind if we join you?"

Hermione looked at Draco in disbelief. "Um, well-"

"Why thank you," Draco interrupted with a smile. He took a bite of his sandwich and looked at the occupants of the table. He swallowed his bite and looked at Hermione. "Would you like a bite? It's really good. Probably better than eggs."

Hermione looked down at her plate, then back at Draco with a smile. "Well, maybe if it _was_ just eggs, then I might agree with you, but there are three cheeses in here, onions, tomatoes, spices, potato, mushrooms _and_ peppers. I'm pretty sure it's better than a deli platter on bread."

"Well I do believe that sounds like a challenge," Draco replied with a smirk. "I'll try your little omelet if you try my deli platter."

Hermione laughed and pushed her plate towards him and pulled his towards her.

Ginny and Blaise looked at their friends, just as confused as the other, neither understanding what was going on. Blaise had known that Draco and Hermione were civil with each other, but didn't know that it extended past friendly conversations about schoolwork or Theo.

"HOT!" they suddenly heard Draco exclaim, reaching for Hermione's water and drinking the whole thing in one breath. "What the bloody hell was that?"

"Hot sauce," Hermione said with an innocent smile. She took another large bite of Draco's sandwich, making half of the sandwich in her hand disappear.

"Wow," Blaise said at Hermione.

"What?" she asked, taking a sip of Draco's drink.

"Sorry," he apologized with a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. "It's just that the only person I've ever seen eat that much in one bite was this one here, and he's just an animal."

"An animal whose drink you just took," Draco joked.

"Well sorry," she said, "but seeing as you finished mine, I thought it was only fair."

"What's going on here?"

-

-

-

"I don't get why you're so upset," Hermione said, defending herself as Harry led her and Hermione from the carriages to the castle. "We were just being civil with one another."

"Civil my arse!" Harry yelled. "I leave you girls alone for one minute and those, those, they go in and assault you!"

"They were _not_ assaulting us and if they were we could take care of ourselves!" Hermione exclaimed. "Harry, you have to get this straight! You are not my keeper! I am a big girl! Draco is not bad! And-please don't look at me like that Harry."

"Hermione," Harry said gently, putting his hands on her arms, "you know I only care about you. I don't want you to be just another notch on his belt. You're too good for that."

"He isn't like that," she told him, knowing that it was only a lie. She looked away from him, knowing that he was the one who was right about that.

Harry wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly.

"I think I'll leave you two alone," Ginny said, leaving the two friends alone.

"So how did things go with Hannah?" Hermione asked, hoping to change the topic, but mainly so that she couldn't think anything bad about Draco.

"I have a date for Halloween."

Hermione and Harry walked up to the astronomy tower and talked about Hannah and how their afternoon went, until Harry saw what was going on at Hermione's table. Hermione told Harry about her pen pal. She wanted to tell him about Theo and Draco too, but after what she had just witnessed, she wanted to wait a little longer.

-

-

-

On the night of Halloween, Hermione and Ginny watched the clocks with the rest of the seventh years. When it was fifteen minutes before they were supposed to meet to go out, they put on their masks and began to head out the door.

"Hermione," she heard Ginny whisper from beside her. Hermione turned to look at Ginny, but instead saw a brunette wearing a green fairy outfit. Her legs were long and tan, as were her arms.

"I think there's a spell on the masks to make us look different," she told Ginny, "but why are we the only ones who see it?"

Ginny shrugged and they reached their destination, where all of the other students arrived shortly. All of a sudden, a glimmer surrounded the entire group and they felt themselves changing, as Ginny had.

A tall boy came up in front of everyone and said, "Seventh years," everyone turned to look at him, "only a few months ago we had a party for the seventh years to promote house-unity. Now we're doing it again, only no one here knows who they will be talking to. There is a spell over the masks. We can't take them off until we return to the school, we can't say our own names or houses, and no one looks like they really do. Now we will be heading off to a Halloween party in a muggle town with muggles _and_ wizards and witches, so let's go."

The boy opened the door that led to a large group of people. It was the party! Hermione stepped through the doorway with the rest of her classmates.

As she was about to join Ginny on the dance floor, she felt an arm hold her back. She turned around and saw the boy who had spoken to everyone. He was tall, pale, and had long, blonde hair with green ribbons matching her green dress. She saw bright blue eyes behind a silver-blue mask. He was wearing an all-black costume.

"Émeraude Amour?" He asked.

Hermione couldn't believe it. "Ignotus Notus?"

"I've wanted to speak to you for so long," he said. "To have a real conversation."

"I've felt the same way," she replied.

"You look beautiful."

"I wouldn't know," she joked.

Draco took her by the hand and led her to the bathroom, where there was a full-length mirror.

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was curly and chocolate brown. It fell a few inches beneath her tanned shoulders. Other than the tone of her skin, which was almost the same as it always was, she looked exactly the same, only wearing a black pixie outfit.

Draco put his hands on her shoulder and looked at her reflection.

"How did you do all of this?" she whispered, almost mesmerized.

"A little magic," he told her. "I picked out a costume for each mask and sent them out randomly. The only thing I did, though, was make sure that I knew which mask you were wearing. I wanted to meet you."

Hermione turned around and looked up at him. "I'm glad you did." She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly on the lips.

Draco's hands slid down to her hips where the rested gently as she let her hands wrap around his neck.

Their kiss was soft, but long awaited. Hermione refused to admit it until that moment, but she had developed feelings for her pen pal over the past few weeks, and now she could do something about it. Draco felt the same way, but for a completely different reason.

When they parted, they walked outside where they sat on a bench and talked for over an hour. They danced. They drank. They talked a lot more. At the end of the night, all of the Hogwarts students met back outside to go back to the school. Draco opened a doorway and let everyone step through, making sure that he and Hermione were the last to leave. They kissed one more time before walking through.

As soon as they stepped through, Draco whispered in Hermione's ear, "I had a wonderful time." He looked up at everyone and said, "I hope you all had a great time tonight, and I hope someone will do something for the winter holidays. Good night and Happy Halloween."

All of a sudden, a shimmer surrounded them and everyone was standing in a different spot.

Hermione tried to wait to see if Ignotus Notus stayed behind, but Ginny dragged her back to the dormitories.

-

**I had a great time tonight.**

_Me too._

**Good night.**

_Good night._

-

Dear Jillian,

I had an amazing time tonight. I hope we can meet again, hopefully face-to-face.

-Taylor


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Seventeen

Hermione woke up the next morning with a letter from Ignotus Notus. Then the next day. Then the next, and for every day that month. She wrote back every time, but the two still never "met." She knew the pen pal program was meant to be kept anonymous, but she was surprised when Ignotus agreed on keeping their identities a secret, but they kept writing.

Harry kept insisting on finding out every piece of information she was willing to share, but had begun spending a lot of his time with Hannah.

The other Gryffindor boys did not have such distractions until the "Winter Games" were announced. Dumbledore called Hermione and Draco to announce the competition and rules for teams of five to compete in a number of events. Each member of a winning team would earn his house twenty points, and the three teams with the most wins in the end would win thirty, forty and fifty points apiece. The lists of events were posted all around the school and students were running around looking for teammates and signing up for events.

Hermione's friends didn't mind her spending time with Draco to organize the "Winter Games," but always had an excuse to be in the same room as them, so it was hard to be friendly. They visited Theo separately because Hermione had to avoid being caught by her friends who didn't approve.

"What do you think we should do about judges?" Hermione asked on November twenty-sixth?

Draco looked up from the list of teams and thought for a moment. "I thought we might be judges."

Hermione nodded, but said, "I was thinking about that as well, but no student will agree too much."

"Why don't we pick professors names out of a hat and assign duties that way?"

"Okay."

They went back to their papers and continued to write.

"This is getting boring," Hermione finally said.

Draco leaned back in his chair. "Thank go d I don't have to be the first one to say it."

Hermione laughed. "Let's go get some food. Oh no. It's almost time for Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

They leapt up, grabbed their books and ran to the classroom just in time to get to their seats before the bell rang.

"So I have seen that the pen pal program has been going great," Professor Gordon began the class with with a large smile. "Is anyone in this class still writing?"

No one in the quiet classroom raised even a finger as their teacher looked around with an excited grin. Hermione sat up in her seat and raised her hand. "I am," she said.

"Splendid!"

"Me too," Harry said.

"Wonderful!"

Soon enough their hands were joined by another few hands.

Draco wanted to raise his, but Blaise gave him a look that told him not to.

"Has anyone met their pen pal yet, or know who they are?"

Harry raised his hand, but he was the only one. Hermione didn't know what to do. Technically, she met Ignotus, but it was under hidden identities. She did have a wonderful time that night though. He was an amazing dancer. He always knew just what to say. It was as though they knew each other for so long.

As Hermione slipped into her thoughts, Draco was doing the same. He made Émeraude's mask to show her inner beauty, like with everyone else's, but when he saw the girl of his dreams show up, he knew he was in love.

"Does anyone know yet how you were paired with your partners?"

No one knew, but Hermione was starting to put the pieces together, she just wasn't paying attention.

Professor Gordon looked around, but knew that it was going to take a little more time, so he began to write on the board and started the day's class.

**Do you want to meet again?**

Hermione looked around the classroom, pretending to pick up her "dropped" pen, but everyone was staring ahead at the board. She didn't know what to write. She wanted to meet him, but why did he wait this long?

_Do you mean for real, or with the masks again?_

Draco looked at the parchment out o the corner of his eye and looked at the classroom. Everyone was writing the notes on the board, so he couldn't tell if Émeraude was in the room or not. But did he want her to know who he was yet? He didn't even know why he asked her to meet.

**I don't think I'm ready for you to know who I am. I like what we have. The anonymity, I think, helps us truly be who we are without reservations.**

Hermione silently breathed a sigh of relief.

_Yeah, and we also wouldn't know who to look for, haha._

**Haha. True.**

_Tonight?_

**Astronomy Tower?**

_How will we wear the masks? The spell wore off._

Draco thought for the rest of the class. And the next class. And the next class. Finally it was their break before dinner.

"Hermione, I can't work for the rest of the day," He told her in the library where she was still waiting to hear from Ignotus. "Blaise and I are going to visit Theo and see how he's doing and then I told Blaise I'd help him with an essay."

Draco knew that Blaise would be indisposed for the rest of the night. He was meeting some "mystery girl" from the Halloween party. They both wore glamours over themselves because neither had told the other who they really were. Draco knew was that they were Jillian and Taylor, but he wouldn't tell Blaise who Jillian was.

Hermione nodded. "That's fine. I was going to say the same thing, but with Dean. He's new to arithmacy."

Actually, Dean was going to be practicing for the games. When he found out some of the events, he decided to teach the guys, with Harry, some muggle sports.

"Shall we choose the professors at dinner then?"

"We'll do it right before dessert."

Hermione and Draco bid each other good evening and went their separate ways.

Hermione went straight to the Infirmary to see Theo before dinner. She knew that it would take Draco some time getting Blaise and then coming to the Infirmary, so she figured that she has a little time to see him first.

When she got there, he was trying to reach for a book. She raced over to the table and picked it up.

"Did you want this?" She asked.

Theo sighed. "I feel so weak," he said.

"I think I figured out what sort of potion fell on you."

Theo's eyes flew open as wide and fast as he could.

"It could have been a muscle-weakening potion," she told him. "They were made illegal ten years ago, but sometimes they're made, illegally, and put on meat to tenderize it. I suppose someone's been doing that-"

Hermione continued to go on, but Nott laid down in his bed. He didn't want anyone to know that he had been the one to brew the potion. Sometimes he would put it on his steaks, but he was also planning on selling it to a spa as massage oils, once diluted. He never realized what the effects of a full cauldron pouring on him was like. He planned on testing it on Émeraude Amour.

He snapped out of his thoughts when Hermione asked him how he was feeling. When he told her that he felt strong enough for a conversation, they began to talk. It was a slow conversation about summer.

"My pen pal, we're still writing," she told him, "and I spoke about the summer. It's weird how there are so many people in this school, yet we never truly know anything about anyone until we ask."

"Like the slumber party," Theo joked.

Hermione blushed and tried not to laugh. "Oh shut up you," she said with a giggle. "Girls just wanna have fun."

"What?"

"It's a song by a muggle artist," she explained. "It's also from one of my favorite movies."

Nott thought for a little. He missed writing to Émeraude Amour. Maybe now he was strong enough to dictate a note, if not write one himself.

"Do you miss writing to your pen pal?" he heard Hermione ask.

"Yes," he replied honestly. "I wasn't too honest in the beginning, but she seemed very nice."

"What does she think happened to you after you stopped writing?" Hermione asked.

"She doesn't know," he told her. "I asked a friend to help me write to her. I tell him what to write and he reads me her letters," he lied.

"I'm sure she'd like to hear the truth," was what Hermione wanted to say, but Madame Pomphrey walked into the room to see where all the noise was coming from.

"I'm sorry Madame Pomphrey," Hermione said. She turned back to Theo. His gentle eyes were staring up at her. It took a long time for him to even look in her direction. "I'll talk to you later," she told him before leaving.

As soon as Hermione stepped out of the Infirmary, a single red rose fell at her feet. She picked it up and saw a note attached that read: Émeraude Amour,

I look forward to our encounter tonight. Wear this tonight and when the clock strikes midnight we will become who the other knows us as.

Ignotus Notus

Hermione looked at the rose, wondering how she was supposed to wear it when the petals opened up, as though in speeded bloom, and saw an emerald-shaped rose on a long silver chain. The rose was the size of her thumbnail with excellent craftsmanship. It was like a miniature rose n full bloom.

She raced back to her dormitory and shut the door behind her before examining the gift further. She said incantation after spell after charm to make sure there were no curses or anything that would harm her. When she was finally satisfied, she squealed with delight and put it around her neck. It fell just between her breasts; low enough to hide under her shirt, which was what she did.

"Hermione!" She heard Neville call from the bottom of the stairs. "Are you coming to dinner?"

"I'll be there in a moment!" Hermione called back.

She grabbed a cap, list of professors' names that she tore apart, self-inking quill and piece of parchment.

-

-

-

"Students, lend me your ears!" Dumbeledore announced before dessert. All eyes looked up at him. "Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy, I give the floor to you."

Hermione and Draco walked up to the platform and looked at the student body. It was much bigger than Hermione remembered.

"As you all know the 'Winter Games,' a competition between teams to occur over the next few week, will begin this weekend. Teams have been organized along with games and entertainment, but no competition is complete without the judges," Draco said confidently. Hermione noticed how well he was able to control his audience and hold their attention. He looked at Hermione, as though expecting her to finish.

"Oh, er," she said, caught off guard. She held up the cap and focused on the pitcher of pumpkin juice in the back of the Gryffindor table. "We have placed all of the professors' names into this cap. We will go through the list of events and assign two professors to judge and one to referee for each one."

"The third judge and second referee," Draco continued, "will be myself, Hermione Granger, Professor Dumbledore, Ginny Weasley or Blaise Zabini."

They assigned each of the professors to at least four.

"There are seventeen teams," Hermione said at the end. "We expect everyone to be on time when expected, not go where unwanted-"

"And wait your turn if your team is not participating," Draco interrupted. "We'll see you this weekend."


End file.
